$350M canola processing facility to be built in southeast Saskatchewan

A $350-million integrated canola processing facility is planned for southeast Saskatchewan with construction to start next year.

Ceres Global Ag, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., is behind the project being built at Northgate, which is next to the U.S. border south of Oxbow.

“Its location along the Canada-U.S. border is ideally located to originate canola seed from our farmer partners, and with a direct connection to BNSF Railway, it provides the most efficient access to the U.S. market and U.S. ports,” Robert Day, president and chief executive officer at Ceres, said in a news release.

Ceres says Saskatchewan is Canada’s largest canola producer and there is big demand for the oilseed.

“While there are multiple drivers contributing to this demand, the most important is the movement towards green energy and the need for vegetable oil as feedstock for the production of renewable diesel,” said Day.

The facility should be operational by summer 2024 and is expected to create more than 50 full-time jobs in the province.

The news is being promoted by the Saskatchewan government as supporting its Growth Plan goal to increase agri-food exports to $20 billion in the years ahead.

Crushing 75 per cent of the canola produced in the province, growing Saskatchewan’s agri-food exports to $20 billion, increasing agriculture value-added revenue to $10 billion, increasing the value of exports by 50 per cent, and growing private capital investment in Saskatchewan to $16 billion annually are all part of that plan.