Citing revenue challenges in recent years as the reason for downsizing, the institute informed staff and clients of the closure of its River Road facility in Portage, prior to releasing the news to the media.

There will be no jobs lost as a result of the closure. Many of the technicians and engineers employed by PAMI in Manitoba have been working remotely since the pandemic began and will continue to do so after the Portage location closes its doors.

The one full-time employee who did work on location has taken a position in Portage with one of PAMI’s industry partners.

As recently as January of this year, Prairie Economic Development Canada (PEDC) announced $600,000 funding for a major upgrade to the hydraulic machinery testing system for the Portage la Prairie site.

PAMI was formed in 1975 to provide Prairie farmers and farm equipment manufacturers access to testing facilities for new products. In recent years, PAMI has expanded its focus to include the mining and transportation industries.

PAMI’s head office, located in Humboldt, Sask., will remain open and services will be consolidated at that location. — Manitoba Co-operator staff

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The market for alternative protein has soared in recent years, attracting major investment from global agrifood groups, including Nestle, PepsiCo and Archer Daniels Midland, hoping to capitalize on a trend toward healthier eating.

But pea production slumped this year due mainly to a severe drought this summer in top supplier Canada that cut ouput by 45 per cent, pushing prices up 120 per cent from last year, Roquette said in a statement.

Meanwhile in France, the crop was severely damaged by wet weather during harvest.

“The dramatic increase in prices will inevitably lead to costs being transferred to customers,” Roquette said.

The company declined to give details on price rises it is considering passing on to its customers globally.

Family-run Roquette is the largest pea protein producer for the food market. It built the world’s biggest pea protein factory at Portage la Prairie, Man., which is due to reach full capacity in 2022, processing some 125,000 tonnes of peas a year. It also has a pea protein factory in northern France.

Last year it signed a three-year supply agreement with U.S. plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat to end-2022.

The global pea protein market is projected to increase about 12 per cent per year to reach US$554.9 million by 2028, according to research firm Grand View Research.

Other key ingredients of plant-based protein such as soybeans, corn and wheat have also seen prices rally over the past year on strong international demand and a lack of global supplies.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide.

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The company is working toward full operation at the world’s largest pea plant by early 2022, she said.

“To date we have picked up hundreds of loads of peas from growers and we are using these peas to fine-tune and commission our processing and quality assurance systems at the plant,” Finley, the company’s communications and public affairs manager, said via email.

Construction of the 200,000-square foot facility, costing about $500 million, was completed late last year, and Roquette purchased peas to calibrate the production equipment.

“Our goal is to have consumer-ready protein available during the summer of 2021 and the plant will reach full production capacity in early 2022,” Finley said.

Ground was broken for the plant in 2017, but work was delayed for more than a year as Roquette upgraded its design, with construction resuming in October 2018.

Once operating at full capacity, the Roquette plant will be able to process about 125,000 tonnes of yellow peas per year. Also, the plant is able to process conventional and organic peas, with plans to buy 5,000 tonnes of Manitoba-grown yellow peas during the first year of operations.

Up to 120 people will be employed at the plant, Finley said.

Prices for yellow peas have been steady for about the last month, but have climbed more than $4 per bushel during over the last year, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Prices currently range from $9.25 to $11.25 per bushel.

Nearly 4.6 million tonnes of peas were produced in Canada in 2020, according to Statistics Canada. Of that, about 2.5 million tonnes were in Saskatchewan, with 1.8 million tonnes in Alberta, while Manitoba harvested about 246,000 tonnes.

Roquette has said it fully expects the amount of peas produced in Manitoba to increase.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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After construction is finished at the end of 2020, the 200,000-square foot facility will work its way up to processing 125,000 tonnes of yellow peas per year.

“We will be receiving peas in six to eight weeks,” Dominique Baumann, CEO for Roquette in Canada, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Extensive measures continue to be taken to protect workers at the Portage plant from COVID-19, he said.

Glen Last, grain buyer for Roquette in Canada, said the company is planning to receive 5,000 tonnes of organic yellow peas from Manitoba growers in the plant’s first year of operation.

“We’re quite confident there has been very good interest from growers,” Last said, adding there are conventional growers considering a switch to organic peas.

“Acres may not meet their needs the first year, but down the road it’s certainly going to be a sustainable supply,” he said, acknowledging organic yields are about half of conventional yields.

Should the need arise, he said, yellow peas would be brought in from Saskatchewan.

Last didn’t comment on contract specifics, but said organic contracts will adhere to Canadian organic rules and traceability, while being quite similar to contracts for conventional peas. That includes growers having a choice between one- or two-year deals with incentives.

“Our pricing will be at a sustainable level to make it work for the grower as well as [Roquette],” he said, noting contract specifics would be discussed directly with interested growers.

“We are very confident the grower base is there. We have a good contact list of growers. We have had conversations with them all.”

Last also said Roquette will provide growers with supports such as agronomists, help with seed selection, crop rotation as well as with pick-up and delivery needs.

Should the demand evolve, the entire plant could be switched over to organic peas, Baumann said.

“Consumers are looking more and more for organic products,” he said.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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The market for plant-based protein such as meat-free burgers has surged in the past few years, attracting major investment from global agrifood groups, including Archer Daniels Midland , Cargill and Nestle, hoping to capitalize on a trend towards healthy eating generally, including less red meat.

But lockdowns around the world to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have shaken the market, Jean-Philippe Azoulay, Roquette’s head of pea and new proteins business, told Reuters in an interview.

“Long-term were are not worried, this is a trend which is not going to reverse but short term there is some uncertainty,” he said.

Azoulay said there had been a sharp slowdown in new products due to the fact that many companies had to shut down laboratories, including Roquette.

The family-run company, which signed a three-year supply agreement with U.S. plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat to end-2022, is due to open the world’s largest pea protein factory at Portage la Prairie, Man. later this year.

Azoulay said sales to food service outlets, including restaurants and cafeterias, were also severely impacted by the crisis.

But it also led to increased demand for plant-based protein food in supermarkets, with people doing more cooking and trying new recipes, which could prove positive for the sector long-term.

A Reuters analysis of sales data showed that U.S. sales of fresh plant-based meat rose 102 per cent in volume in the second quarter of the year.

A positive impact from the COVID crisis, such as people eating less meat or less fish, could prompt Roquette to accelerate plans to open a second facility in Canada, Azoulay said.

— Sybille de La Hamaide is a Reuters correspondent covering France’s agrifood sector from Paris.

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“Beginning in early March we proactively started collaborating with contractors on COVID-19 prevention measures, such as increased cleaning of communal spaces and thermal camera monitoring of everyone entering the site,” said Michelle Finley, the company’s communications and public affairs manager for Canada.

“We have followed the province of Manitoba’s guidelines for social distancing and limited gatherings to no more than 10 people. Where possible, we’ve adjusted tasks to incorporate a minimum of two meters of personal space.”

As of Thursday, she said, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the people at the worksite and construction remains on schedule.

Production at the facility is slated to begin sometime in late 2020, about 18 months later than originally planned.

Construction of the nearly-$500 million plant did not get fully underway until the fall of 2018, more than a year after its groundbreaking ceremony. Roquette said the delay was the result of design upgrades.

The pea-processing plant is expected to be the largest in the world, capable handling of 125,000 tonnes of peas per year and employing up to 120 people.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg. Includes files from Alexis Stockford of the Manitoba Co-operator.

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Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat on Tuesday announced a “multi-year pea protein supply agreement” with France’s Roquette, renewing a “longstanding partnership” between the two firms.

No specifics were available on the amount of peas involved or the financial terms of the supply deal.

Beyond Meat, in its release, said the renewed agreement “significantly increases the amount of pea protein to be supplied by Roquette to Beyond Meat over the next three years as compared to the amount supplied in 2019.”

“This latest contract with Roquette reflects Beyond Meat’s commitment to further scaling the plant protein supply chain as global demand for our products continues to rise,” Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said in the release.

Founded by Brown and partners in 2009, Beyond Meat has grown its public profile exponentially in the past couple of years, expanding its space on retail shelves as well as in the menus of major restaurant and fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Subway, Tim Hortons, KFC, A+W and TGI Friday’s, offering simulations of ground beef, sausage, meatballs and chicken.

Roquette has also expanded its space in the pea market in recent years, breaking ground in 2017 on a pea processing plant at Portage la Prairie, Man., where it expects to take in about 125,000 tonnes of peas annually from 2020 onward.

When it announced the Portage plant in early 2017, Roquette billed it as “the world’s largest dedicated to pea protein in the food, nutrition and health industry to date.”

“We are very pleased to continue supporting the growth of Beyond Meat, which shares our passion and values this long-term commitment,” Roquette CEO Jean-Marc Gilson said in the same release.

Along with pea protein, Beyond Meat products’ ingredients include mung bean and rice protein as well as coconut oil and cocoa butter for “marbling” and beets for a red beef-like colour in their uncooked form.

The company says it uses “a simple process of heating, cooling and pressure to create the fibrous texture of meat and layer in plant-based fats, binders, flavours and colours.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“Peas will become the next successful crop in Manitoba. Thank you for believing in the future,” Eichler tweeted.

Part of the minister’s optimism stems from global corporate giant Roquette constructing the world’s largest pea processing plant at Portage la Prairie. When operation starts, expected in the second half of 2020, the $400 million plant will be able to process approximately 125,000 tonnes of peas per year. That’s more than the 104,800 tonnes of peas grown in Manitoba last year.

For 2019, Statistics Canada projected dry pea acres in Manitoba to drop 8.6 per cent to 77,700. Although that’s the third most acres in the country, Manitoba’s crop is a fraction of the peas grown in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

In Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s May outlook for principal field crops, pea production has been projected to increase by nearly 420,000 tonnes, to four million tonnes for the 2019-20 crop year.

When the Roquette plant is built, Eichler expects Manitoba’s pea production to increase.

“Currently, Roquette is expecting to contract 60 per cent of their peas right here in Manitoba, which was originally higher than company expectations,” the minister said in an email to MarketsFarm.

One specialist with Manitoba Agriculture predicted pea acres in the province will reach 100,000 acres in 2020 and balloon to 300,000 in the following years.

Given China’s ban on canola imports from Canada, Eichler said it’s good there will be more value-added processing in Manitoba to provide farmers with more confidence in making planting decisions.

“There will always be a demand for peas worldwide. Peas are such a versatile commodity. With peas being high in protein and Manitoba looking at becoming the protein supplier of choice, grain companies will always be able to find and assist farmers with different ways and tools to market their product,” he said.

— Glen Hallick writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting. Includes files from Melanie Epp for Glacier FarmMedia.

Table 1. Pea production, in thousands of tonnes.

Table 2. Projected pea area, in thousands of acres.

Source: Statistics Canada.

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”We took the opportunity to include some upgrades to allow us to include a broader range of pea protein products to better serve the continuously growing market demand,” said James Bozikis, Roquette’s head of communications and public affairs for the Americas in an email.

Bozikis said the company wants to provide a broader range of products to meet more applications.

“You only get the chance to build once – we wanted to ensure we had included all we could in to the plans before we started building in earnest,” added Bozikis.

The C$400 million pea-processing plant was originally announced in January 2017 and the France-based company broke ground on the project in September 2017. Originally it was to operational by April 2019, but that was later changed to mid-2019 and then 2020. Bozikis confirmed the plant is now to be operational during the second half of 2020.

Once in full production the plant is expected to process approximately 120,000 tonnes of peas annually.

According to Statistics Canada, there were 3.6 million acres of peas seeded this year nationally. Of those, 85,000 acres were in Manitoba and 1.9 million acres in Saskatchewan.

Despite Manitoba’s low acreage, Portage la Prairie was chosen as the location for the Roquette pea-processing plant due to the area’s business environment according to the company.

“While we may process peas from other provinces, Portage offers an ideal business environment to accelerate our development and contribute to further developing pea production in Manitoba,” Bozikis said.

Roquette is hoping pea acreage will increase in Manitoba, but according to Gordon Bacon, chief executive officer of Pulse Canada, the financial incentive will need to be there for farmers for that to happen.

“It’s not the gross returns; you really have to look at net returns. You have to look at what your seed costs are. What your fertilizer costs are and what other inputs you have,” Bacon said.

Also crop rotation could play into more peas being grown.

“You can’t grow canola continuously without risking a higher level of disease. That’s the same with cereals. That’s the same with pulses,” Bacon said.

Prices for peas took a tumble in November 2017 when India imposed tariffs of 50 per cent on pea imports. Producers had been getting over C$8 per bushel, but were suddenly faced with prices around C$6.50 per bushel.

“Believe it or not, and beyond my explanation, it has climbed back up. We’re getting C$7 a bushel on yellow peas,” said Allan Johnston, president of Johnston’s Grain in Welwyn, Sask.

For green peas, Johnston said the price is up to C$9 per bushel delivered.

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The company and the provincial government on Wednesday announced construction will begin this spring on a 280,000-square foot expansion at its 180,000-square foot french fry processing plant at Portage la Prairie.

The expansion, expected to be complete in fall 2019, is forecast to “more than double the plant’s need for potatoes from regional growers” and create another 87 full-time positions at the plant. Operations are expected to continue during construction.

The Portage processing plant, which opened in 2003, today has capacity to process over 300 million lbs. of potato products per year. Simplot has previously noted it set up the facility to accommodate just such an expansion.

The plant makes frozen french fries and formed potato products for major quick-service restaurant chains and other customers in the eastern, southeastern and midwestern U.S.

“Manitoba delivers in so many ways that will help make this project a success,” Mark McKellar, president of Simplot’s food group, said Wednesday in a provincial release.

“It has access to quality potatoes, a strong grower community, availability of highly skilled employees and distribution routes that continue to expand our footprint.”

The province has pledged an investment package including tax increment financing of up to $6.31 million to go toward “anticipated capital investments and road improvements,” and up to $522,000 toward employee training, based on the number of new positions.

Crown-owned utility Manitoba Hydro, meanwhile, will offer $1 million toward electrical and natural gas efficiency projects at the plant through its PowerSmart program, based on the plant “meeting program guidelines.”

Idaho-based Simplot said it will bring in “industry-leading” energy and water efficiency processes at the Portage plant as part of the expansion. Such systems, it said, are already in place at its plant at Caldwell, Idaho, about 40 km west of Boise.

Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler, in the same release, said a capacity boost at Simplot’s plant “presents a tremendous opportunity for Manitoba farmers to strengthen their partnership with a reliable local processor and increase potato production in Manitoba.”

Already Canada’s second-largest potato-producing province, Manitoba harvested 62,800 acres of potatoes in 2017, yielding a total of 22.2 million hundredweight, down slightly from 22.4 million cwt off 64,000 acres in 2016.

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba’s output represented 21 per cent of Canadian potato production in 2017, behind Prince Edward Island (22.3 per cent) and ahead of Alberta (19.4 per cent).

According to the Keystone Potato Producers Association, the processing market takes up about 85 per cent of Manitoba’s total potato production.

The province’s growers supply plants including Simplot and McCain Foods at Portage, McCain at Carberry and J.D. Irving’s Cavendish Farms plant at Jamestown, N.D., about 150 km west of Fargo. –– AGCanada.com Network

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