Saskatchewan is getting its fourth canola crushing plant. Cargill, Viterra and Ceres Global Ag Corp have already announced plans to build facilities in the province and now FCL joins the ranks of those companies which will invest in such a venture.
Federated Cooperative Limited announced today that it plans to build an Integrated Agriculture Complex north of the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina. The IAC will include a previously announced renewable diesel facility which represents a nearly $2 billion investment and a $4.5 billion investment in a new canola crushing plant in partnership with AGT Foods.
The Viterra and Cargill plants are planned for Regina while the $350 million Ceres plant will be located in Northgate, near the U.S. border. The CEO of Ceres had stated in the news release announcing the plant last year that there are several drivers which are pushing demand for canola crushing but the most important was a movement toward green energy and the need for vegetable oil as feedstock for the production of renewable diesel.
The FCL renewable diesel plant will have a production capacity of 15,000 barrels per day, or about 1 billion litres per year. The FCL-AGT canola crush facility will use 1.1 million tonnes of canola seed to produce 450,000 tonnes of oil, supplying approximately 50 per cent of the feedstock required for the renewable diesel plant, with the remainder of the supply being contracted from other canola crush facilities.
FCL CEO Scott Banda says, “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. We are excited about our partnership with AGT and ultimately what this announcement means for value-added agriculture in our province.”
The Premier was also in attendance at the virtual announcement and says, “Our province has the food, fertilizer, and fuel the world needs, including renewable energy from canola grown and processed here, which speaks to the heart of our plan for economic recovery and growth as we work to build an independent, strong and sustainable Saskatchewan.”
