AGT Food and Ingredients and Federated Co-operative Ltd. (FCL) will band together to build a new canola crush plant in Saskatchewan, it was announced Monday.
The planned $360-million plant – with annual crush capacity of up to 1.1 million tonnes - will be part of a larger $2 billion investment FCL is making in the construction of an Integrated Agriculture Complex (IAC) near Regina, which will include a 15,000-barrel-per-day renewable diesel facility. The crush plant is expected to supply about 50% of the feedstock required for the renewable diesel facility, with the remainder of the supply contracted from other canola crushers.
The partnership between FCL and AGT is a 51%-49% split, with FCL holding the majority ownership stake.
“This historic announcement is about the future of our business. We know the synergies between transportation fuel production and agriculture will play a vital role in Western Canada’s transition to the low carbon economy,” said Scott Banda, CEO of FCL. “We believe our Co-op Retailing System is well-positioned to integrate and capture the full agricultural value-chain in the production of fuel and value-added products.”
The AGT/FCL venture is the latest in a number of new canola plant announcements for Western Canada. Richardson International, Cargill, Viterra and Minneapolis-based Ceres Global last year all announced new canola plant projects in Saskatchewan with a combined crush capacity of around 6.8 million tonnes.
FCL is a wholesaling, manufacturing, marketing and administrative co-operative owned by more than 160 independent local co-operative associations. These local co-ops own and operate agro centres, food stores, gas bars/convenience stores and home centres.
Regina-based AGT Food and Ingredients is one of the largest suppliers of value-added pulses, staple foods and food ingredients in the world.
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