U.S. grain handler Scoular’s Canadian arm has opened a new flax processing operation at its site just southeast of Regina, into what it describes as a record-strong flax market.
Scoular Canada on Wednesday announced the opening of its “high-speed” flax line at Richardson, Sask., where it already processes and cleans lentils, peas and canary seed.
The company broke ground on the flax operation last winter as part of a $10 million investment at the site, which also included the recent addition of another pulse crop cleaning line.
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“High-speed” refers to the “industry-leading” rate at which the plant can clean flax to the “high purity standards our customers require,” Jeff Vipond, Scoular Canada’s general manager for pulses, seeds, distilling and milling, said via email Wednesday.
That processing rate, he said, “will substantially increase our ability to grow our volumes into the high-quality ingredient space.”
The plant will produce whole and milled flax in the brown and golden categories for use in breads, cereal, bars, snacks and pastas as well as oils, supplements, pet foods and livestock feeds.
The flax plant “incorporates technology that enables it to deliver some of the highest-purity flax available on the market,” Scoular said Wednesday in a release, noting the plant is certified to Global Food Safety Initiative standards and has organic certification also.
Putting up the flax operation at Richardson was a matter of efficiency, Vipond said, as it allows the company to “leverage key personnel and a strong grower base across both sites.”
This week’s opening “coincides with a strong flax market and record-high prices for Canada,” Scoular said, as drought in North America, tight supplies worldwide and demand for pet food and flax oil have supported farmgate prices. Consumer awareness of flax as a non-GMO source of omega-3 fatty acids and fibre, meanwhile, has lifted demand.
Omaha-based Scoular dates back to 1892 but has been in Canada since 2015, when it took over the pulse and special crops division of Legumex Walker.
Its space in Canada remains mainly in the West, where it has offices at Calgary and Saskatoon, processing plants at Winkler and St. Jean Baptiste, Man. and Saskatoon and Tisdale, Sask., and grain handling sites at Brooksby, Sask. and Petersfield, Man. plus a transload site near Calgary. In the East, it has two warehouses in southwestern Ontario and one in New Brunswick.
The company in 2020 expanded its Winkler sunflower plant when it moved its Winnipeg birdseed operations there. That year it also stepped out of the Prairie edible bean business, selling the former Roy Legumex processing plants at Plum Coulee and Morden, Man. to a Michigan bean grower co-operative. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
