The hottest topic in the business world in this region these days is canola processing. We’ve just seen the third announcement of a major facility in the province in a little more than a month.
These will substantially expand Saskatchewan’s footprint as a global supplier of basic canola seed and value-added forms such as canola oil and meal.
The latest is Viterra, which intends to construct the world’s largest canola crushing plant at Regina. Output from the facility will also be used in further downstream processes such as feed stock in renewable fuel production to meet national greenhouse gas emissions standards.
Earlier, Richardson announced a doubling of output at Yorkton and Cargill is adding a new plant in Regina while enhancing an existing facility at Clavet.
These also represent a significant shift in the way value-added processing is managed. Historically, producers such as Saskatchewan have struggled to secure value-added investment as processing was generally done closer to end markets. But, with these plants, the shift is on to more processing being done at the source of supply instead.
