250,000 annual capacity Saskatchewan facility will focus on pulse crops, but handle grains as well
Agrocorp International PTE LTD is bucking the consolidation trend in the pulse industry by creating a new player in the processing sector.
The Singapore trading house is building a large, high-throughput facility in Moose Jaw, capable of processing 250,000 tonnes of grain annually.
“Our core is going to be in pulses but we’re definitely going to look at processing and handling the full range of products that growers are looking to market,” said plant manager Colin Young.
The plant will be capable of processing 100 to 150 tonnes of product per hour.
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That compares to 12 to 25 tonnes per hour for a typical special crops processing facility.
“Processing speed is very much on line with terminal type capacity as opposed to special crops capacity,” said Young.
Agrocorp claims the speedy processing plant will better equip the company to meet the needs of today’s customers who are looking for product to be delivered within a small window of time.
“The markets will take large volumes but they want it shipped very quickly,” said Young.
Dan Flynn, a pulse producer from Beechy, Sask., was happy to hear about a big new facility being built in his area of the province.
“The more competition the better. That’s the bottom line. It’s nothing but good news in my mind,” he said.
“I think pulse acres are going to expand in Saskatchewan and Western Canada and the more capacity we have is nothing but a good thing. I say bring it on.”
Flynn said there is increasingly a need for plants like this one that will export bulk yellow peas, lentils and chickpeas in 50 to 100 rail car unit trains.
“You take red lentils for example. I think that’s becoming a commodity very rapidly.
“That’s probably the trend that it will stay on,” he said.
Agrocorp handles about three million tonnes of commodities annually, including 1.2 million tonnes of sugar, one million tonnes of grain and 500,000 tonnes of pulses.
The company is a licensed and bonded exporter of Canadian crops with an office in Vancouver. It has been using toll processors to clean its Canadian product and plans to continue using companies located outside of the anticipated 160 kilometre drawing area of its new plant.
Like many other grain companies, Agrocorp is keen on securing its own supply of Canadian crops by owning inland processing capacity.
The company has offices in India, Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar and Russia that will assist in the marketing of its Canadian product, which will be shipped to the Indian Subcontinent, China and the Middle East.
“Agrocorp is the customer. We are not adding layers to the supply chain,” said Young.
The Moose Jaw plant will be partially owned by McDougall Acres, a Moose Jaw seed supply company. The other local connection is Young, who owned R Young Seeds, which was Canada’s largest chickpea exporter before the processing plant in Mortlach, Sask., burned to the ground last May.
Young is excited to be back in the business after a one-year hiatus and is particularly keen about expanding the list of crops he has dealt with in the past.
“We’re interested in and looking to establish some sort of presence in the wheat market,” he said.
Flynn was happy to hear that.
“That is a direct result of the (Canadian) Wheat Board not having their iron grip on the supply of western Canadian grain anymore, so I think that’s just fantastic,” he said.
Construction is underway at a site along the CN Rail line in Moose Jaw and is scheduled to be complete by this fall.
Agrocorp is already offering new crop contracts for peas and lentils.
The plant will be in direct competition with Simpson Seeds, which has been processing pulses in the Moose Jaw area since 1979. But Young downplayed the looming competition.
“We’re specifically not looking to take anybody’s territory,” he said.
