A multimillion-dollar expansion to a mustard facility in Bow Island, Alta., has resulted in new access to markets in Japan and South Korea.
G.S. Dunn Ltd. is investing approximately $30 million to expand its 22-acre mustard milling facility, aided by a $3.1 million Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit from the Alberta government.
The facility brings in mustard seed from farmers, packages it for sale and sends it to 110 countries.
“The Alberta tax credit allowed us to add the milling operation to our facility where it did not exist before,” David Shields, plant manager for G.S. Dunn’s Bow Island operations, said in a video announcing the investment.
Read Also
Croptimistic’s SWAT Cam maps one million acres in Western Canada
Croptimistic’s SWAT Cam has mapped more than one million acres, using sprayer-mounted cameras to generate crop and weed maps that support in-season analysis and future management decisions.
“Now, we are able to mill our products here in Alberta, closer to the source where it is growing. The process was very smooth. Working with the government, it helped us navigate some of the regulatory aspects of it. It helped us with our increase in the workforce and the ability to accommodate the staff here, with our infrastructure.”
The project has created 34 new jobs, and the expansion will also increase the facility’s purchasing power of raw mustard seed from $13 million to $44 million, with all seed coming from 300 rotated producers in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The Bow Island expansion is the second phase of G.S. Dunn’s value-added mustard milling project. Since its initial expansion into Alberta, the company has increased capacity by more than 200 per cent. The current phase has increased processing capacity by approximately 70 per cent compared to pre-expansion levels.
The APITC program provides a 12 per cent non-refundable, non-transferable tax credit when businesses invest $10 million or more in a project to build or expand a value-added agri-processing facility in Alberta.
The program is open to any food manufacturers and bioprocessors that add value to commodities such as grain or meat or turn agricultural byproducts into new consumer or industrial goods. Up to $175 million in tax credits is available for each project.
G.S. Dunn has more than 150 years of experience and provides more than 250 value-added milled mustard products, making it the largest supplier in the world.
The company was set up by the British businessman of the same name, who opened his first Canadian mustard mill at Hamilton in 1867. Its Prairie seed procurement and cleaning operation was set up at the former Spitz sunflower seed plant at Bow Island in 2019.
