Cargill Officially Opens High-Tech Canola Crushing Plant in Alberta

Three years after construction began on the facility, Cargill has officially opened its canola crushing plant outside of Camrose in Alberta, Canada.

The plant has the capacity to process 850,000 tons of canola per year into crude canola oil for food and canola meal for animal feed, creating a $500 million annual economic impact on the region.

“The canola oil you buy in the grocery store or that’s used in restaurants for frying purposes, that’s really where the primary product that comes out of this facility will be used,” says Jess Vassart, president of Cargill Ltd. Canada.

The plant will also provide farmers within a 250-kilometer radius with an expanded market for their canola. Previously, area farmers would export the canola seed, however, with the opening of Cargill’s plant, they will have the opportunity to process their seeds into value added products to sell.

The plant will use state of the art technologies to treat its waste water on site and to generate its own electricity, reducing its environmental impact. Together with Cargill’s animal nutrition plant and exporting facility in Camrose, its beef processing facility in High River, and its similar crushing operation in Saskatoon, Cargill has become a market leader in Canada, processing the most canola in the country.