By James Bowler

New Nipawin grain terminal could yield trade possibilities

Feb 25, 2015 | 5:50 AM

A new multi-million dollar company will be opening a grain terminal in the Town of Nipawin.

Hanfood will be a company focused on agri-trade with economic developing countries like China, which are looking to purchase higher quality foods from Canada. The venture is expected to also bring new employment opportunities to Nipawin and the surrounding areas.

Andy Hu, president of MaxCrop and president of Hanfood, said he chose Nipawin based on the location of surrounding ports to ship food products internationally, as well as it being in the heart of the agricultural community.

“Nipawin has the best place to grow the crops,” said Hu. “Second, there is no terminal in Nipawin now, there [were] wooden elevators before, but [they’re] gone, it’s a good time to have a terminal here.”

The grain terminal will be able to hold 46,000 metric tonnes of product and will connect to the Canadian Pacific (CP) Rail lines with a 134-railcar loop, which will be built by Green Tree Engineering.

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Hu added that with the growth of China’s economy there has also been a growing need for higher quality foods that Canada is able to provide.

“We always got a demand from our Chinese buyers,” said Hu. “[In] the Chinese market there is a huge demand for a lot of quality crop[s] from here.”

Hu said he enjoyed being in Nipawin because the people are very friendly as well.

“They will give you very good support,” said Hu.

“If you look at a fair-sized facility, you’re probably looking at a dozen full-time jobs,” said Mayor of Nipawin David Trann. “The spin-offs from that are immense: the trucking industry, the small business.”

Trann said that with the industry naturally helping to boost the economy, smaller businesses could start opening and thriving in the community.

He added that Nipawin has been looking into more economic development for the community for the past few years.

“Economic development has been our focus for the last three years, we’ve invested a lot of resources and time into that,” said Trann. “We’ve been overseas to China four times, different Chinese officials have been back, and this is a result of our efforts.”

Trann said he travelled with Premier Brad Wall three years ago when Wall traveled to China to talk about trade agreements with the province.

“We still have a number of irons in the fire for foreign direct investment, but the result of Hanfood coming is because of our efforts in that, “ said Trann. “[The] economic impact is huge and that’s our focus; we’re trying to lay the blueprint for today, tomorrow and in the future.”

Currently, there is no definitive timeline for when construction will begin on the grain terminal. However, representatives with Green Tree Engineering said they are hoping to start by the spring, pending agreements with CP Rail.

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim