REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA — AGT Food and Ingredients Inc., a supplier of value-added pulses, staple foods and food ingredients, has announced plans to build a value-added oat milling facility at an existing plant in Aberdeen, Saskatchewan, Canada. The facility will focus on the production of a variety of products, including oat groats, flours and other milled oat products, for plant-based human food, specialty ingredient and animal feed products, AGT said.

“We are very excited about this new venture for AGT,” said Murad Al-Katib, president and chief executive officer of AGT. “Oats are very complementary to pulses in their amino acid profile, which increases their digestibility and gives them highly desirable characteristics for extruded products like snacks and pasta, bakery applications and the beverage industry. Oats are a major cereal crop for Saskatchewan with significant production levels, and AGT is already exporting thousands of tonnes of oats each year. Combined with our expertise in value-added milling and the production of high-quality plant-based ingredient products, we have a real advantage in creating value for our producers in this new product area.”

AGT said it will begin the construction project immediately, with the oat milling facility expected to be fully operational for production and distribution of products by the end of 2022. Construction will include retrofitting of some equipment and the addition of some new equipment. Capacity is expected to be about 60,000 tonnes per year.

“With demand strong and growing for innovative plant-based products in the marketplace, and with a number of new products being offered in our system utilizing oats, including extruded flours and blends, snacks and pastas with oats and pulses, we expect that our existing and new customers will find our unique oat-derived products to provide significant advantages for their products as well,” Al-Katib said.

Aberdeen is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan’s most productive oat growing region, where approximately 30% of Canada’s oats are produced, AGT said. The new oat mill will be located on the site of an existing AGT facility with road and rail service that features access to CN Rail and AGT’s private fleet of railcars for delivery to customers throughout the Americas.