ADM on Wednesday announced having bought Prairie Pulse Inc., whose main asset its its pulse crop processing and packaging plant at Vanscoy, about 25 km southwest of Saskatoon.

Chicago-based ADM — known as the ‘A’ in the ‘ABCD’ group of the four dominant companies of the global grain trade — didn’t disclose the financial terms of its deal in its release Wednesday.

The Vanscoy plant’s operations include pea, lentil and chickpea origination, with 12,000 tonnes of bulk storage capacity. It also handles cleaning, dehulling, splitting, milling, sorting, sizing and bagging.

In all, ADM said, the Prairie Pulse business will double its pulse-processing footprint in the region. The U.S. firm already has a pulse crop origination and cleaning plant about 150 km northwest of Vanscoy, at North Battleford, handling mainly lentils and peas.

“This addition also expands our capabilities to meet the needs of our downstream customers, who are increasingly looking at pulses as protein sources for both human and animal nutrition products,” ADM’s Winnipeg commercial manager Aaron Brown said in the company’s release.

“The enduring global trends of sustainability and food security are powering growth in alternative proteins, and ADM is continuing to invest to ensure we’re at the forefront of meeting those needs.”

Allan Wagner, the CEO for Prairie Pulse from its launch in 1995, described the deal as “an exciting opportunity for Prairie Pulse, our staff, and customers” and the buyer as “a global leader in agribusiness, transportation and processing, as well as the fast-growing alternative protein sector that our products serve.”

Wagner said the deal will see him join ADM, “whose guidance, strength and leadership will be a tremendous boost to our efforts to maintain, expand and grow our business.”

Brown said ADM also aims to “expand employment opportunities in Vanscoy and enhance our capability to supply the growing demand for pulse products.” –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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As crop prices rise, farmers have greater incentive to use fertilizer and maximize yields, boosting potash demand and spurring a surge in global sales of potash fertilizer.

Nutrien expects higher output to boost core earnings from its potash business in the second half of 2021.

The Saskatoon-based company said in May it expects potash sales in the range of 12.5 million tonnes to 13 million tonnes for 2021. Last month, it also raised full-year forecast for adjusted net earnings per share to between $2.55 and $3.25 from $2.05 to $2.75 forecast earlier (all figures US$).

Domestic and offshore potash sales volumes are currently fully committed through September, based on original production profile for 2021, Nutrien said in a statement.

The company said it will be hiring more workers and “adapting its resources” to help lift production across most of its mines — particularly at its Vanscoy facility, about 35 km southwest of Saskatoon.

Nutrien was also recently reported to be in discussions with international mining firm BHP about a partnership on the latter company’s major potash development at Jansen, Sask., about 60 km southeast of Humboldt.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rithika Krishna in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The Saskatoon company said Wednesday it “expects to proactively take up to eight-week inventory shutdowns” at its mines at Allan, Lanigan and Vanscoy, Sask. during that period.

If all three mines stay idled for the full eight weeks, the company said, its potash production could be reduced by about 700,000 tonnes.

As a result, Nutrien said in a release, its 2019 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) from potash alone could be reduced by US$100 million and $150 million (C$132 million to $198 million).

Despite short-term market conditions, “we remain positive on potash demand for 2020, as well as the medium to long-term potash fundamentals,” the company said.

Nutrien’s news follows last month’s announcement from fellow fertilizer firm Mosaic Co. that it will temporarily idle its mine at Colonsay, Sask., between Allan and Lanigan.

Mosaic said Aug. 6 it plans to draw down inventories and use production from its Esterhazy K3 potash project, about 350 km southeast of Colonsay, to meet customers’ demand.

Doing so, Mosaic said, allows the company cut its costs of production, accelerate “inventory depletion” and boost its leverage for strengthening markets into next year.

Longer-term, Nutrien said Wednesday, it “remain(s) focused on a gradual ramp up of production to meet demand and to ensure we operate the safest, most reliable and efficient potash business in the world.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Verdient Foods on Monday announced the opening of a pulse food processing plant at Vanscoy, Sask., with plans for gradual capacity increases to over 160,000 tonnes as the facility takes on “additional product lines.”

However, what brought the unusually heavy media coverage to Monday’s announcement was the plant’s operating company, PMC Management, which manages several processing ventures spearheaded by film director James Cameron and his wife Suzy Amis Cameron.

Cameron, originally from northern Ontario, is best known as the director of films such as The Terminator, Avatar and Aliens, while Amis Cameron has acted in films such as The Usual Suspects and Cameron’s Titanic.

The financial terms of the Camerons’ investment in Verdient, in partnership with Saskatoon-based PIC Investment Group and Whitecap Dakota First Nation, were not released Monday.

Verdient on Monday also announced it has signed a four-year research contract with the Saskatoon-based Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre, working with other food companies to develop value-added organic products using Verdient’s pulse ingredients.

The Food Centre, a not-for-profit partnership between the province, the Saskatchewan Food Processors Association and the University of Saskatchewan, includes pulse processing among its specialties, helping develop products for uses such as meat and cheese substitutes, baking ingredients, breakfast cereals and nutritional bars.

Verdient said it expects the plant to become the largest organic pea protein fractionation plant in North America once fully operational. The company plans to use “dry” fractionation to isolate and concentrate protein, starch and fibre from pulse crops for use in specialty flours and other products.

The Camerons said Monday they also plan to work with Saskatchewan farmers in a mentorship program to “provide a profitable structure to keep younger generations of Canadian farmers engaged in organic farming.”

“For years, we’ve been on a mission to help the world eat healthy food grown by farmers who have chosen to farm organically,” said Amis Cameron.

The Camerons’ related ventures include the Plant Power Task Force campaign; Muse School, a Los Angeles-based private school devoted to “eco-literacy;” the Red Carpet Green Dress fashion campaign; and Food Forest Organics, a New Zealand market supplied by Cameron Family Farms in the Wairarapa region.

PIC Investment Group’s portfolio also includes stakes in water treatment company ClearTech, hydroponic greenhouse firm Ecobain Gardens, mustard processor MPT and Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant Systems. CEO Greg Yuel said PIC’s “long-term perspective matches our partner in this opportunity perfectly.”

The Verdient plant also won’t be the only pulse player in Vanscoy, which since 1995 has been home to lentil and canary seed processor and exporter Prairie Pulse, northeast of the Verdient site on Highway 7.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, attending Monday’s announcement, said “the Camerons’ decision to move forward with this project in Saskatchewan is a tribute to the province’s grain producers, our growing food processing industry, and our world-leading research community.” — AGCanada.com Network

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An Agrium spokesman said in a statement that the company was working on a plan to restart the facility and did not expect any “material disruption.” Agrium gave no timeline for resuming operations at the mine.

A worker was injured Monday and is in critical condition in the hospital, said Darrin Kruger, president of United Steel Workers union’s Local 7552 division.

Kruger said the incident was under investigation by a provincial workplace safety body and that the facility was expected to reopen after that concludes.

A Saskatchewan spokeswoman said the province does not comment on open investigations and has no standard timeline for them.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ethan Lou in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Calgary-based Agrium said Wednesday its site at Vanscoy, about 25 km southwest of Saskatoon, is back in business after completion of what it called a “major turnaround” to tie in a one million-tonne expansion project.

The Vanscoy facility is expected to ramp up production during the first half of the new year, Agrium said. The site’s target production volume for 2015 is “unchanged,” at 2.1 million tonnes.

“Turnarounds,” in industry-speak, are usually scheduled shutdowns for maintenance and/or capital projects. But the turnaround has been underway at Vanscoy since late July, after the main hoist system in the potash mine “experienced a mechanical failure.”

Production was shut down at the mine as a result, but Agrium decided then to bring forward its already-planned turnaround to tie in its capacity expansion project, and to keep the mine offline until the tie-in was complete.

Brownfield expansion at the site has been underway since 2012, with the aim of boosting its annual production capacity by about 50 per cent. The nameplate capacity would thus rise to three million tonnes for the Vanscoy mine, which has operated since 1969.

Then-CEO Mike Wilson said in late 2011 that a Vanscoy expansion would “ultimately be much quicker to bring on, and significantly less expensive to develop, than any greenfield project that is under consideration.” — AGCanada.com Network

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