Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler recently returned home from a successful trade mission to the European Union.
During a trip to France, he got a first hand look at the operations of Roquette, the company building a $400 million pea processing plant near Portage la Prairie.
"We had a great meeting with them and they were great hosts," said Eichler. "They also gave us an opportunity to see what the Manitoba plant may look like. It was absolutely unbelievable. They're so clean and neat. The plant in France is quite a bit bigger than what we're going to have in Manitoba but they had 3,000 employees at that operation."
Eichler notes the company has sent six staff over to Manitoba as construction is expected to ramp up at the Portage site in the new year.
He adds officials from Roquette will meet with the province in December or early January to provide an update on the project, which is expected to be complete in 2019.
Source : Steinbachonline