Expansion Confirmed for Clavet Canola Plant

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The Saskatchewan canola industry got a big boost last week with the announcement that Cargill Ltd. is expanding its canola processing plant in Clavet by 25 per cent.

Construction on the project will begin this fall, and is expected to conclude by the spring of 2007. When completed, it will expand the plant's processing capacity to 3,000 metric tonnes per day from its current 2,400-tonne volume.

"We firmly believe that Canada, in particular Saskatchewan, is one of the areas of the world best-suited to an expanding production of vegetable oil in the form of softseeds," said Wayne Teddy, president of Cargill's Grains and Oilseeds Supply Chain business unit for North America.

The investment, he added, will "help better position Cargill and its canola producers as a go-to source in serving the growing global demand for fuel and food applications derived from canola."

The Clavet plant crushes canola for use in margarine, salad oil and other food ingredients. Lower quality grades processed at the facility may be used in biodiesel fuel production.

Located east of Saskatoon, the plant opened in the mid-1990s, and currently employs 50 people. Already one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world, the expansion will build on a success story that has delivered value-added processing to the province's agricultural sector for the past decade.

A major presence on the international grains and oilseed market, Cargill Ltd. operates in 61 countries with 142,000 employees. Its selection of Saskatchewan as a place to expand is a vote of confidence in the province's canola industry and its agricultural producers.

"It is our commitment to expand Cargill's Canadian footprint into those areas that will deliver the greatest value to our farm and end-use customers," noted Cargill Ltd. President Len Penner. Expanding the Clavet facility, he added, will "ensure domestic consumers have access to a reliable, consistent, high quality ingredient for fuel and food."

For more information contact:
Robert Meijer, Director of Public Affairs, Cargill Ltd.
Phone: (204) 947-6370
E-mail: robert_meijer@cargill.com
www.cargill.ca