The Super-Pufft plant will be in Airdrie
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A snack company is bringing a potato processing facility to an Alberta community.
Super-Pufft, which produces potato chips and other snacks for private brands and their in-house brand, Go 2 Snax, has committed to constructing a $50-million plant in Airdrie, Alta.
The company also received $250,000 in funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
The facility at 705 East Lake Road NE will be about 132,500 square feet in size. It will have 11 shipping and receiving doors, operate 24/7 and use about 78,000 tonnes of Alberta potatoes annually.
In addition, it will bring jobs to the community.
“We’re talking about 100 jobs or more,” Nate Horner, Alberta’s minister of agriculture, forestry and rural economic development, said in a statement. “This is a great example of how Alberta’s first-class reputation for high-quality agricultural products, combined with the right business environment, is attracting new world-class agri-food investments to the province.”
The news of this facility comes at a time when people need work.
With the pandemic forcing workplace changes on employees, having a new opportunity in the Airdrie community is welcomed, said Peter Brown, mayor of Airdrie.
Super-Pufft is “creating opportunities for people that may be unemployed right now, maybe looking for work closer to home (and) creating opportunities for their families,” he said, DiscoverAirdrie reported.
Alberta produces the second-largest volume of potatoes in Canada.
Alberta farmers harvested 67,800 acres of potatoes in 2021, data from Stats Canada says. Only farmers in P.E.I. harvested more with 85,250 acres of potatoes harvested.
The facility in Alberta is Super-Pufft’s second in Canada with the other in Mississauga, Ont.
The Airdrie location will service western Canada and the western U.S.
“We supply almost each and every retailer and national brand in the country and in the USA,” said Yousif-Al-Ali, Super-Pufft’s president and CEO, Global News reported.
Farms.com has contacted Potato Growers of Alberta for comment about the new processing facility and the potential opportunities for Alberta potato farmers.