A British Columbia company is checking out a few prairie towns and thinking about spending $30 million to build a flax seed crushing plant.
A plant making flax oil for human consumption is a potential development that’s delighting the underdeveloped flax industry.
“It’s really welcome news,” said Flax Council of Canada chair Eric Fridfinnson.
“I think they’re probably in the right place at the right time.”
Shape Foods Inc. of Burnaby, B.C., has been talking with the City of Brandon, another western Manitoba town and two communities in Saskatchewan, about obtaining land and incentives.
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The company has said that at full capacity, which might not be reached for a number of years, the plant could crush the flax grown on 70,000 acres.
Officials have said the plant would employ 39 full-time staff and 15 part-timers. Officials told Brandon city council that construction could begin by September if that site is selected.
Company officials could not be reached for comment by The Western Producer’s publication deadline.
Flax has a number of uses, including meal and fibre for animals, meal and fibre as human health food, oil for manufacturing linoleum and oil for human consumption.
Fridfinnson said the addition of another plant would not simply add another market for prairie flax growers, but also increase the critical mass of the small flax processing industry.
“When you get a few of these companies … it’s really good for the industry. They’re competing and all coming up with different products,” he said.
