Viterra has been serving customers in the Red River Valley for almost 100 years.
The company announced earlier this week that they plan to build on that history with the construction of a new grain elevator near Ste. Agathe.
"It's an area that we've got a long tradition of partnering with farmers and we felt it was very important that we reinvest in the area with a very modern facility that allows us really to meet the changing requirements of our farmer base," said Kyle Jeworski, Viterra's President and CEO for North America.
The new facility will have a capacity of approximately 30,000 metric tonnes and will have access to both CN and BNSF rail lines. It will be able to load up to 124 cars on a continuous loop track.
Jeworski notes that the company is well represented in the area but says there was a bit of a hole near Ste. Agathe.
"This was an area that was really a gap in our current infrastructure, so we saw it really as a great opportunity to compliment what we're doing with our existing elevator base but also again with our [canola] crush plant that's also located in Ste. Agathe," he said.
The new state-of-the-art facility will be much quicker when it comes to receiving grain and loading out.
"We value farmers time," said Jeworksi. "This is going to be fast from a receiving standpoint. Good from an end-use customer standpoint. We're able to serve our end-use customers from a different geography than we're serving them from today. All-in-all I think it's going to be a benefit for both our farmer base and our end-use customers."
Preliminary work is slated to begin this fall, with full construction scheduled to get under way in the spring. Jeworski hopes to see the facility completed within the next 18 months.
Source: SteinbachOnline