Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) will be building a $94 million oat processing facility in northwest Winnipeg. The company says it will be located on roughly 600 acres adjacent to its existing inland grain terminal and ancillary businesses.
Annually the new build will process up to 250,000 metric tonnes (MT) of raw oats from western Canadian farmers.
“Paterson’s new oat mill will allow PGF to continue to diversify its commodity business with value-added products for the benefit of consumers and farmers alike,” says Andrew Paterson, PGF’s president, and CEO.
The mill will be known as O Foods Ltd. and create roughly 70 new jobs. It will produce a full range of high health oat products for the world market.
Being situated at its existing grain terminal means it will be right beside Manitoba’s largest private rail siding, consisting of 260 rail cars serviced by Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, and BNSF.
Brent Derkatch, director, of the pedigreed seed business unit with Canterra Seeds, says this is fantastic news for the agricultural industry.
“It’s building on the value-added processing that we’re seeing invested in western Canada, more specifically in Manitoba as we’ve seen other announcements such as the Roquette pea processing facility in Portage La Prairie, this is all very exciting,” Derkatch says. “This is about taking grain commodity products and converting them into food ingredients, which does a lot of different things. It keeps a lot more value of Canadian agriculture within our country, and it provides farmers with more local market opportunities.”
Derkatch adds for oats; in particular, the prairies are the primary production area for milling oats for North America, and beyond and with this investment by PGF, it reaffirms that oats will remain a viable cropping option for farmers.
Construction has already begun and with the opening to be determined at a later date.
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