By Alice McFarlane

A Manitoba pea protein plant begins contracting for organic yellow peas

Oct 28, 2020 | 4:05 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – A new pea protein plant in Portage la Prairie, Man. is now contracting organic yellow peas.

The Roquette plant is the largest of its kind in the world. It is a global leader in plant-based ingredients and a pioneer of plant proteins for food, nutrition, and health markets.

It will start operations at the end of the year processing 125,000 million metric tonnes of yellow peas each year for its NUTRALYS plant protein line.

Roquette grain buyer Glen Last said the response to the first round of contracts from producers of conventional yellow peas in Manitoba and Saskatchewan has been very positive. He said he believes there will be a good supply of organic peas.

“We’re very confident the grower base is there. We have a good contact list of growers and we’ve had small conversations with them all and I feel confident that we will have our supply and it will grow as our need grows,” Last said. “Our goal is to build strong, long-term relationships with growers who contract with us.”

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Roquette Canada CEO Dominique Baumann said as construction continues their biggest concern is for the health and safety of the 850 workers on site.

“We have contact tracing and processes in place. We had to add some trailers to ensure social distancing is happening, we are spacing the breaks for the workers, so we have less workers in the trailers,” Baumann said. “We provided masks and workers can use as many as a they want.”

Baumann said in early September the company set up on-site COVID-19 testing making it one of the first private testing facilities in Manitoba.

Plans are underway for an official opening in 2021.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF