Regina-based AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. expects that a new oat-milling facility in Aberdeen, northeast of Saskatoon, will receive grain this harvest.
The company announced March 3 the plant will produce oat groats, flours and other milled oat products for human consumption, specialty ingredient markets and animal feed products.
AGT already has a facility in Aberdeen and the new mill will boost the company’s presence in the plant-based ingredient market.
Company president Murad Al-Katib said the plant will initially handle about 60,000 tonnes of oats and target cereal and flake manufacturers in Mexico and the United States.
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“AGT also has a market for oat groats in our plant-based ingredient business for oat flours and blends with pulse flours and proteins for bakery, snacks and pasta,” he said.
Oats complement pulses in their amino acid profile, increasing their digestibility and offering desirable characteristics for extruded products such as snacks, pasta, bakery applications and beverages.
Al-Katib said a new extrusion plant at Regina, to be complete in April, will process oats and pulses into chips, puffs, pellets, strips and extruded flours.
Construction in Aberdeen is expected to begin immediately. The existing site has road and rail service, with AGT’s private fleet of rail cars available.
SaskOats chair Chris Rundel said AGT’s investment indicates the strength of the oat market.
“It highlights how robust the demand is,” he said.
“The run in prices in the last year was already more incentive for some to grow more oats. Any expansion of oat processing facilities is good for growers.”
Rundel said another plant in Saskatchewan will keep more product in the province, which is good for the economy and producers.
“It should translate to more money in producers’ pockets,” he said.
Oats has become more of a priority in grower rotations, Rundel added, as the perception switched from feedgrain to serving the healthy food market, dairy alternatives and gluten free.
Demand is growing in other parts of the world where consumers are looking for ways to incorporate oats into their diets and for western-style foods, he said.
Canadian oat production was down about 43 percent last year to 2.6 million tonnes due mainly to the drought in Western Canada. Saskatchewan is typically the largest producer.
