The project, announced Tuesday, is expected to add an additional canola crushing line and more than double the plant’s annual capacity to over two million tonnes upon completion. Construction is due to begin later this year.

The crush plant, built in 2009, today employs 120 people producing food-grade canola oil and feed meal.

The plant previously underwent expansion in 2013 to boost its crush to about 3,000 tonnes per day. An explosion in a meal storage bin in the fall of 2014 reduced the plant’s output for about three months.

“This investment supports [the company’s] strategic growth plans by reinforcing core merchandizing activities, in this case with additional capacity to originate and process Canadian canola seeds to provide nourishment for people and livestock,” Michael Gelchie, Louis Dreyfus’ CEO, said Tuesday in a release.

“It also positions LDC as a strategic feedstock provider to renewable energy producers and accelerates our contribution to a global energy transition that we are excited to be a part of,” he said.

Jeremy Harrison, the provincial minister for trade and export development, said Tuesday in a separate statement Dreyfus’ expansion stands to bring Saskatchewan “even closer” to goals laid out in its 2030 Growth Plan — among them “the ambitious goal of crushing 75 per cent of the canola produced in the province.”

Dreyfus noted the plant is “strategically located in the country’s most productive agricultural zone, where canola is the dominant crop, and benefits from dual rail and good road infrastructure. The enlarged complex will create further operational synergies and enhance canola seed sourcing capabilities.”

“This project reflects our long-term commitment to North America as a key market for LDC, both in terms of origination and distribution, and is expected to contribute to continued local economic development,” Brian Conn, Louis Dreyfus’ country manager for Canada, said in the same release.

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McCain Foods announced Monday it will put up $600 million to build two new production lines for frozen french fries and potato specialty goods at its Coaldale plant at Chin, Alta., about 25 km east of Lethbridge.

The Toronto-based company said it expects to start construction “later this year,” but hasn’t yet given a timeline for the project’s completion.

McCain did say that once fully operational, the Coaldale expansion will require another 260 hourly and salaried employees, more than doubling its current workforce there to 485.

McCain Foods CEO Max Koeune described the $600 million outlay as the “largest global investment in our 65-year history… underscoring our commitment to the future of agriculture and innovation in Canada.”

The company said the expansion will also follow best practices in line with its previously announced goal of cutting its worldwide greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the 2020s.

Thus, McCain said, the Coaldale plant expansion will include wind turbines and solar panels to provide “100 per cent renewable electricity.”

Biogas from the plant’s wastewater treatment will be run back to its steam boilers to offset the plant’s use of natural gas, and a water recycling system will also be put in place to reclaim potable water for processing, McCain added.

McCain’s Coaldale plant was first built in 2000, focused at the time on french fries for markets in the Eastern Hemisphere. The plant underwent a relatively smaller expansion in 2017 that boosted its capacity by an estimated 15 per cent.

McCain on Monday didn’t put a number on how much more potato production it will need to supply the plant once the expansion is online.

A McCain representative did say via email the new expansion “will bolster our existing relationships with our farmers and require us to build new farmer partnerships along the way to meet requirements.”

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s potato growers produced 26.81 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes on 71,325 harvested acres in 2022, putting it just out ahead of both Prince Edward Island and Manitoba in terms of total annual yield by province.

Southern Alberta’s potatoes go mainly to french fries and other frozen potato goods, processed in that region by Lamb Weston and Cavendish Farms as well as McCain for domestic and export markets.

The region is also home to two major potato chip processing plants, operated by Old Dutch and Pepsico-Frito Lay. Another snack food maker, Super-Pufft, announced plans last year for an Alberta potato chip plant at Airdrie.

Potato crops in Alberta are grown under irrigation, which today covers about 1.8 million acres of the province’s farmland.

Another 230,000 acres are to be added through a $933 million infrastructure project announced in 2021 to be financed by the province, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and 10 participating irrigation districts. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

UPDATE, March 14: Article updated to include comment from McCain representative.

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The major Toronto meat processor announced Tuesday it had completed a $182 million, 73,000-square foot expansion at its Lagimodiere Boulevard prepared meats plant, to “significantly” increase its bacon production capacity.

The expansion, Maple Leaf said, provides “new in-house capacity for pre-cooked, microwaveable bacon.”

Final commissioning of the expansion is expected to be completed “in the near term” with commercial production ramping up “over the course of the coming months,” requiring another 350 new jobs at the facility, bringing its total workforce to over 1,900 people.

The Manitoba government on Tuesday announced it would put up about $1.9 million under a new two-year agreement with Maple Leaf via the provincial Industry Expansion Program, to help fund skills training for the expanded workforce.

With the expansion, the Lagimodiere plant will become Maple Leaf’s primary pre-cooked bacon production facility — where its pre-cooked bacon has until now been processed by co-manufacturers in the U.S., using pork from Maple Leaf’s primary hog slaughter plant at Brandon, Man.

The Lagimodiere plant was already the single biggest bacon processing plant in Canada, thanks to a major expansion in tandem with sweeping consolidation of Maple Leaf’s further-processing work in the early 2010s.

The company in 2013 and 2014 closed a bacon plant at North Battleford, Sask. and a sliced meats plant handling bacon in Moncton and moved those plants’ work to Winnipeg, where new ham and bacon smokehouses and other equipment were then installed.

Maple Leaf in 2011 said the Lagimodiere plant would become its “centre of excellence” for ham. Provincial Ag Minister Ralph Eichler in 2016 described the plant as a “bacon centre of excellence” following another expansion of its bacon processing capacity — a title Maple Leaf conferred on the plant on Tuesday.

“Our vision to become the most sustainable protein company on earth applies even to our very best convenience food, which includes delicious pre-cooked bacon,” Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain said in Tuesday’s release.

“This state-of-the-art facility will deliver sustainably-made cooked bacon products from meat humanely raised and without antibiotics, made by a carbon-neutral company. We are really proud of this.”

Moving the pre-cooked bacon processing away from co-packers to the Lagimodiere plant will also help Maple Leaf cut its freight and product costs, the province noted.

“The pre-cooked bacon industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in North America,” provincial Economic Development Minister Jon Reyes said in a separate release.

The provincial funding, he said, “will help Manitoba’s economy to recover from COVID-19, strengthen training opportunities in the meat sector, and support innovation and job creation in an industry that is in high demand.”

“This expansion has the potential to benefit not just our company, but Winnipeg and its residents through good employment opportunities and increased production of nutritious, great-tasting and sustainable products in which we can all take pride,” Iain Stewart, Maple Leaf’s senior vice-president for operations, supply chain and purchasing, said in the province’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Plans for a second shift at Olymel’s packing plant at Ange-Gardien, about 50 km east of Montreal, have been in the works since February — but the need for an increased hog handle is more pressing now for Quebec producers up against a backlog of market-weight hogs on their farms.

Olymel, the meat packing arm of Sollio Co-operative, in February budgeted $9 million in renovations at the former F. Menard slaughter, cutting and deboning plant to handle a second shift.

The “addition of activities” at Ange-Gardien has led to 150 jobs created “so far,” Olymel said, bringing the number of employees working at the plant to over 700, with over 100 new positions to be filled “in the coming months.”

The upgrades, which were “completed on schedule,” include more refrigeration space and freezing capacity, an expanded cafeteria and parking areas, and improved wastewater treatment equipment.

The plant’s weekly slaughter capacity “will therefore increase from 25,000 to 35,000 hogs in the coming weeks,” Olymel said.

Adding capacity at Ange-Gardien “should also help improve the backlog of hogs awaiting slaughter, whose numbers have reached an unprecedented level in Quebec,” Olymel said.

The backlog stemmed mainly from a four-month strike at another Olymel hog slaughter plant at Vallee-Jonction, Que., about 240 km northeast of Ange-Gardien in the Beauce region.

Workers have since accepted a new contract and slaughter resumed Sept. 3 at Vallee-Jonction, where the weekly hog handle is also about 35,000 head.

As of Aug. 31, les Eleveurs de porcs du Quebec, the province’s hog farmer organization, estimated the backlog at about 180,000 head. Still more hogs were shipped to slaughter out-of-province while producers also sold off weanlings to clear up barn space for the larger animals remaining.

Past that, the boost in activity at Ange-Gardien “fulfills the development goals Olymel set when it acquired F. Menard” in early 2020, Olymel CEO Rejean Nadeau said in a release Friday.

“This investment will also allow our company to increase its production of value-added products, such as chilled pork, a product that is particularly popular in the Japanese market that the Ange-Gardien plant already serves, in addition to the domestic market,” he said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The company announced Thursday it will start to wind down work late this year at the Nestle Professional plant at Trenton, where dehydrated dry-blend and frozen products are made mainly for the U.S. restaurant and hospitality sectors.

The plant is expected to close in stages with the first products transferring to U.S. plants in late 2021 ahead of a “full shutdown” at Trenton by mid-2022, Nestle said.

In a release, Nestle said the foodservice industry is “highly competitive” and volumes in the U.S. have “continually outpaced” Canadian volumes, meaning over 80 per cent of the Trenton plant’s annual output is now shipped to the U.S.

The Trenton plant, Nestle said, “is part of a North American manufacturing network and the U.S. foodservice factories have capacity to absorb the production.”

However, the company said it “remain(s) focused on growing the Nestle foodservice business in Canada and staking out a post-pandemic leadership position in out-of-home solutions.”

Nestle emphasized its decision “in no way reflects the performance of our dedicated team members who work tirelessly to provide the highest quality products.” Local media reports put the plant’s current workforce at about 200 people.

The Trenton plant in the previous decade underwent two upgrades, including a project to streamline operations at the site in 2010, and a 30,000-square-foot expansion in 2011 creating new lines for both frozen and dehydrated food processing. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Nestle Canada said June 23 it expects to break ground in September for a 26,600-square foot expansion of its London, Ont. plant with “additional buildings, increased refrigeration capacity and other services to support the new capacity.”

The two new production lines, due to be completed by 2023, are expected to generate “more capacity for future growth, resulting in incremental ingredient, packaging, and raw material supplier purchases,” the company said, noting it bought over $45 million of dairy in the area in 2020.

The expansion follows reconfigurations in 2016 to boost the London plant’s capacity and flexibility for more product lines under the Haagen-Dazs brand, which has been processed there for the Canadian market since 1985.

A $51.5 million, 9,000-square foot expansion followed in 2018 “to create more capacity for future growth of Haagen-Dazs and other popular products.”

The latest expansion “allows us to bring even more exciting and innovative products to market and continue to meet consumer demand,” Jayne Payette, Nestle Canada’s president for ice cream, said in the company’s release.

The London plant, which today employs over 800 people, is expected to “create 88 new job opportunities” as a result, the company said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Vaughan, Ont.-based Recipe Unlimited, owner of fast-casual and dining chains such as Swiss Chalet, The Keg, Harvey’s, St-Hubert and Montana’s, announced Monday it will sell the Milestones chain to Foodtastic, owner of the Second Cup and Nickels Deli brands among others.

“This transaction enables Recipe to further rationalize our portfolio to focus on large brands that generate significant free cash flow and dominate their segment with younger brands that offer attractive opportunities for accelerated new restaurant growth,” Recipe CEO Frank Hennessey said in a release.

“While it is always difficult to depart with valued franchisees and teammates, we feel that Foodtastic is the right parent for Milestones at this stage of its history.”

Sold by Vancouver-based Spectra Group to Recipe (then known as Cara) in 2002, Milestones today has 45 locations — 27 in Ontario, 11 in British Columbia, five in Alberta and one each in Saskatoon and Moncton. The chain’s menu includes various burgers, steaks and pasta dishes and assorted happy-hour fare.

“This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of acquiring quality Canadian brands with growth potential, and we are excited to introduce Milestones to the Quebec market,” Foodtastic CEO Peter Mammas said in the same release.

Montreal-based Foodtastic today has over 370 outlets across 16 brands, mainly in the Quebec market, also including rotisserie chicken chains Au Coq, Fusee and Benny, ice cream chain Chocolato and pizza chains Monza and Bacaro, among others.

The company has made no secret of its plans for aggressive expansion and buying more existing brands. It announced a $50 million equity investment in February for more acquisitions.

Most recently, the company closed its deal in April to buy the Second Cup coffee chain, then announced a deal in May for the Copper Branch chain of vegan restaurants.

Financial terms of the Milestones deal weren’t disclosed Monday, other than that the two companies expect to close the sale within 60 days. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The company on Monday announced it will start work immediately on “facility upgrades and improvements” that would allow it to process over 2.2 million tonnes of canola seed per year.

Site work would also give the plant a “high-speed shipping system” with three 9,500-foot loop tracks that can serve both major Canadian railways, as well as three high-speed receiving lanes for deliveries by farmers and truckers.

Full-time positions are expected to be added at the plant when the expansion is complete, the company said, but didn’t predict a specific number. A dollar figure on the company’s latest investment wasn’t given in its release Monday.

The Yorkton processing and oil refining plant “will be dedicated to moving canola crush products at some of the most efficient levels seen in North America,” Richardson said.

“The global outlook for Canadian canola oil is promising, and this latest investment emphasizes our ongoing commitment to best in class facilities,” Darrell Sobkow, the company’s senior vice-president, for processing, food and ingredients, said in a release Monday.

“Yorkton lies right in the heart of canola country and we are focused on providing our producer customers with increasingly efficient means for meeting the needs of a growing global consumptive market.”

Construction at the site, due to be completed in early 2024, will involve “no disruption to current operations,” the company said.

“We opened the original Yorkton plant in 2010 and at that time, it was by far the largest capital investment Richardson had ever undertaken,” Richardson CEO Curt Vossen said in a separate provincial release.

“Saskatchewan and Manitoba producers have responded effectively, providing growth in canola production over the years — this has given us the confidence to move forward with expansion once again.”

Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Minister David Marit, in the same release, said Richardson’s expansion “will help Saskatchewan meet the goals outlined in our Growth Plan, which includes a target to crush 75 per cent of the canola our province produces here in Saskatchewan.”

Richardson has been aggressively dialing up its Prairie crush in the past decade, including a $30 million expansion at Yorkton in 2014.

More recently, in 2017, it brought a $120 million expansion online at its Lethbridge canola processing and oil packaging plant, bringing that facility’s peak annual crush to over 700,000 tonnes per year.

The southern Alberta plant, billed by Richardson as one of the first in the world to market canola oil, was previously expanded in 2015, which in turn followed a $15 million expansion on its bottling and packaging facility in 2012. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Olymel, the meat packing arm of Sollio Co-operative Group, said Friday it will invest $9 million in renovations at its slaughter, cutting and deboning plant at Ange-Gardien, about 50 km east of Montreal, to handle the second shift.

The plant, which today employs about 680 people, is expected to have over 900 employees when the second shift starts operating next September, Olymel said in a release.

The hog plant, which underwent a $7 million expansion in 2016, came to Olymel in January last year when it bought the F. Menard pork production and processing business.

“With this investment, our company will have the opportunity to devote a greater part of its activities to value-added products and will be able to consolidate its position in its domestic and international markets,” Olymel CEO Rejean Nadeau said in the release.

The renovations, which the company said are already underway, will include adding freezing capacity, expanding the cafeteria and employee parking areas and upgrading its wastewater treatment equipment.

In its first phase, the second shift would allow the Ange-Gardien plant to “gradually” increase its slaughter pace to 35,000 hogs per week, up from the current single-shift rate of 25,000.

“Depending on the availability in deliveries and the market needs, this plant should be able to reach a slaughter capacity of 50,000 hogs per week,” Olymel said.

The expanded plant will continue to get hogs from farms it took over F. Menard, as well as associated breeders and other farms in hog-producing areas of central Quebec, the company said.

The Ange-Gardien plant, along with other Olymel facilities, ran overtime shifts earlier this summer with the stated goal of helping to clear Quebec’s pandemic-induced backlog of market-weight hogs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said 12 of the company’s plants in Brazil were being expanded, as JBS seeks to double production capacity, by 2024, of its Seara food division, which processes pork and chicken products.

“The strong investment in Seara reflects our confidence in the brand,” Tomazoni said. “Seara products are now in every Brazilian household.”

JBS, which reported a near nine-fold rise in third-quarter net profit, also plans to start production of cooked and pre-cooked bacon at its new Missouri plant in 2021. The facility has capacity to process 11,000 tonnes of products per year.

In the United States, where JBS derives most of its global sales, the company is mulling a US$200 million investment in a facility to produce charcuterie and other cold cuts.

The company is also upbeat on China, which is expected to import more beef from JBS’ plants in the U.S. in the fourth quarter. The Asian country bought almost a third of JBS’ overall meat exports between July and September.

At home, JBS said doubts remain in relation to consumer demand after the end of the government’s COVID-19 cash aid program, which low-income Brazilians spent to buy food during the pandemic.

“It is difficult to gauge the impact of the end of the ‘corona voucher,’ some food categories may be affected,” said Wesley Mendonca Batista Filho, JBS’ director-at-large.

He added in a scenario of food inflation, chicken remains a competitive protein.

— Ana Mano is a Reuters agricultural commodities correspondent in Sao Paulo.

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