This week’s announcement that Louis Dreyfus is more than doubling its Yorkton canola crushing capacity is another step in a journey that will take Saskatchewan agriculture in a fundamentally new direction.
For decades, Saskatchewan’s farming sector has imagined a future where we not only produced primary products such as grains and oilseeds but one where we also processed that output. More than one attempt was made to make pasta or noodles here on the Prairies, for example.
And, while we had some luck with products such as malt, success was an elusive objective — until canola crushing took the process from niche to mainstream at a world-scale level.
The Louis Dreyfus announcement is the latest in a string of expansions or new projects that the provincial government believes could process as much as three-quarters of our canola production. Not only would be selling canola oil to the food industry but it will be a big component in manufacturing greener, plant-based diesel fuel. And will create an entirely new business opportunity for another by-product – canola meal.
