Canola crushers in Western Canada continue to jockey for position in the country’s rapidly expanding oilseed processing industry.
ADM Agri-Industries, a division of U.S. agrifood company Archer Daniels Midland, is doubling storage capacity at its Lloydminster canola crushing facility and adding a second receiving system to reduce unload times.
Plans include building five new storage bins, each with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes, or about 440,000 bushels.
The expansion will boost the facility’s overall storage capacity to 100,000 tonnes, or 4.4 million bushels.
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J.P. Montalvo, commercial manager at the Lloydminster crushing plant, said the upgrades will make it a more appealing delivery destination for oilseed producers.
“As area farmers continue to produce higher canola yields, they expect fast, efficient and predictable receiving facilities,” he said.
“Whether it’s at fall harvest or prior to road bans, there are times of the year that producers move seed and move a fair amount of it.
“Expanding our Lloydminster receiving and storage operations will help ensure we are the destination of choice for their canola crop.”
Montalvo said the expansion will not affect ADM’s other facilities in Western Canada, which include collection and storage facilities at Watson, Sask., and Carberry, Man.
The Lloydminster expansion is the latest in a flurry of activity within the oilseed crushing industry.
In the last two years, two new crushing facilities opened near Yorkton, Sask. LDM Foods, a division of Louis Dreyfus, opened an 850,000 tonne per year plant and Richardson International opened a $170 million, 840,000 tonne plant.
Richardson also announced a $15 million expansion at its canola packaging plant in Lethbridge.
Cargill opened 750,000 tonnes of new capacity at Clavet, Sask.
Bunge, announced plans last October to double capacity at its crushing facility in Altona, Man.
And more recently, a Regina-based company, Clean Power Concepts, said that it is working with a Chinese food conglomerate to explore the feasibility of building a 600,000 tonne plant in Western Canada.
When asked if ADM has plans to expand its crush capacity in Western Canada or get involved in biodiesel production at Lloydminster, Montalvo said the company would assess opportunities.
Industry insiders are watching this spring to determine how much canola will be planted in Western Canada.
Production in Saskatchewan and Manitoba was down sharply in 2010 due to excess moisture and spring flooding.
In Saskatchewan, 2010 production was pegged at about five million tonnes, down nearly 17 percent from the six million tonne crop in 2009.
Manitoba farmers produced about 2.2 million tonnes in 2010, down 21 percent from 2009.
Alberta’s 2010 production increased to 4.5 million tonnes, up from 3.5 million a year earlier.
