The big keep getting bigger in the special crops industry.
Parkland Pulse Grain Co. Ltd. has bought Cargill Ltd.’s concrete inland terminal in Cutknife, Sask., and has begun a $1 million expansion of the facility.
The terminal, which was closed by Cargill in December 2007, is being converted into the only high throughput pea facility in Western Canada. It is expected to be operational early in 2009.
The firm is following an acquisition, merger and expansion trend that started in 2003 when the pulse industry discovered it was overpopulated with small players, some of whom had run into financial difficulty.
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“There needed to be some consolidation within this industry and slowly we’re seeing that take place and it is creating a healthier industry,” said Gilles Fransoo, general manager of Parkland Pulse.
Since 2003, a number of the larger players in the sector have been expanding, with the most glaring example being Saskcan Pulse Depot, a Regina firm that gobbled up two more Saskatchewan plants earlier this summer, boosting its annual processing capacity beyond 600,000 tonnes.
Fransoo said Parkland’s expanding export business was the motivating factor behind the firm’s latest acquisition. The firm ships Canadian peas, lentils, canaryseed, mustard and flax to 35 countries.
“We’ve been constantly growing so we constantly outgrow our capacities, which means we’re outsourcing product through third parties.”
The company felt constrained in how much new business it could put on the books and in being able to control quality and shipping times.
Once operational, the Cutknife plant will be capable of processing and loading 100,000 tonnes of peas per year. It is situated on a 25-car Canadian Pacific Railway siding.
Unlike smaller plants that are forced to run flat-out, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the facility will operate eight hours a day, a move designed to keep labour costs in check. The plant will require only three to five full-time employees.
“The production is going to come in at 150 tonnes an hour and will be processed as fast as it is unloaded from growers,” said Fransoo.
There will be 6,000 tonnes of storage on site designated for clean product awaiting rail shipment.
Fransoo said the core product will be yellow peas but the plant will clean greens as well.
Parkland operates four other plants – a pea splitting facility, a lentil cleaning plant and a bulk pea and canaryseed cleaning facility with a 28-car Canadian National Railway siding in North Battleford, Sask., and a lentil cleaning and processing plant in Swift Current, Sask.
The Cutknife plant will provide pea producers in western Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta with a year-round delivery point for their crops, allow Parkland’s North Battleford operations to expand into northeastern Saskatchewan and free up more processing space for lentils.
And just like Saskcan, Fransoo hinted that Parkland’s expansion is far from complete.
“Don’t be surprised if in a couple year’s time you’ll see something new again,” he said.
