Viterra Opens New Canola Crusher in Saint Agathe, Manitoba

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Viterra Incorporated (TSX:VT) (Regina, Saskatchewan) held a grand opening event to mark the acquisition of a canola crusher plant located in Saint Agathe, Manitoba. The plant was originally constructed by Associated Proteins Limited (Saint Agathe), and in June of this year, the plant was acquired by Viterra. The purchase and sales agreement was for $64 million plus working capital.

The 1,000-ton-per-day crushing plant was built in 1971. The cold-pressing canola plant operates ten presses. The company is also evaluating a possible $60 million expansion plan that will increase the capacity to 2,000 tons per day.

The company hopes to capitalize on the growth in canola seed crushing. Canola oil is fast becoming the vegetable oil of choice for the health-conscious consumer. The oil is low in trans fats and saturated fats.

Viterra operates Canada's largest grain-handling network, with 99 elevators and 11 specialty crop processing plants in Canada and two in the U.S. Overall the company has more than 1.9 million tons of grain storage capacity and more than $6 billion in annual sales. Viterra's agribusiness is built on the foundation of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Incorporated and Agricore United. In May 2009, Viterra announced it would buy Australian ABB Grain Limited (Adelaide, South Australia) for $1.4 billion. This will allow Viterra to enter in the Southeast Asian markets directly from Australia.

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