By Alice McFarlane

New Saskatchewan facility to process wheat straw into pulp

Jun 1, 2021 | 5:29 PM

MELFORT, Sask. — Regina will be the location of Canada’s first non-wood pulp mill.

Red Leaf Pulp Ltd. said the facility will turn wheat straw into compostable cellulose pulp for use in packaging, tissue, and other paper products.

The initial plant will have capacity to produce 182,000 tonnes of market pulp a year from waste wheat straw from local farmers.

The $350-million project will provide 250 jobs during the construction phase with 110 full-time jobs once the facility begins operation.

Red Leaf CEO Martin Pudlas said Pudlas said there is enough straw capacity for construction of a half dozen processing plants across the prairies.

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The company will work with the local community and its growers in creating low carbon biomaterials from waste wheat and durum straw.

“We believe that this represents significant value creation for the local farming community and will provide additional income streams from existing crops,” Pudlas said. “There will also be several opportunities for supporting businesses, including establishing the feedstock supply chain, plant maintenance services and infrastructure development.”

This is the third major crop processing facility announced for Regina this spring. Economic Development Regina CEO John Lee said this is part of a larger trend of companies taking advantage of what Regina has to offer.

In the past six weeks, the Regina region has seen announcements of $1.5 billion in investments, 1,500 construction jobs and 250 permanent full-time jobs.

Viterra and Cargill have announced plans for multi-million-dollar canola processing plants in the Regina area.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2022 with production beginning in mid-2023.

Red Leaf will hold public consultations to provide more information about the facility, including the exact location.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW