It remains unclear when operations at the Louis Dreyfus Commodities canola crushing plant in Yorkton, Sask., will resume, after an explosion brought it to a standstill more than a month ago.
The plant is “preparing to resume operations as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Brian Conn, vice-president of LDC Canada in a news release posted Nov. 24
“We are continuing our investigation of the incident with the additional objective of testing our controls, procedures and processes.”
Conn declined to comment further.
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In the days following the Oct. 24 fire and explosion, Brant Randles, president of Louis Dreyfus Commodities Canada, said it could take three to seven weeks for operations to resume.
The fire started in the meal load-out tower. It caused dust ignition and spread through a tunnel to the canola meal pellet storage shed.
Since the accident, the amount of canola crushed in Canada has significantly dropped.
Over the four weeks before the explosion, Canadian Oilseed Processors Association members crushed a little more than 148,000 tonnes a week on average. In the four weeks following the event, the average dropped to 129,000.
The Louis Dreyfus plant has the capacity to crush 850,000 tonnes of canola per year.
The shutdown happened just as many had completed harvest.
Lawrence Yakielashek, general manager of FarmLink Marketing Solutions, said farmers who have contracts with LDC are in a tough situation.
“They don’t know from a day-to-day basis when it’s probably going to open up,” he said.
Yakielashek said plant officials are trying to communicate with growers, but don’t have any answers.
He thinks the shutdown has had little effect on the canola market because there are other outlets where canola can go.
