Potato processing plant with 400 jobs could have located in Saskatchewan

A $350 million potato processing plant under construction in Lethbridge could have been located in Moose Jaw, says an irrigation engineer/consultant. Outlining the Cavendish Farms plant to the Saskatchewan Irrigation Project annual conference in Moose Jaw, Dale Miler said the plant could have come to Moose Jaw, which has a skilled labour supply, links to railways and the Trans-Canada Highway. “Moose Jaw has better transportation than Lethbridge,” he told the 90 irrigators.

But the Prince Edward Island-based processor would not look at Moose Jaw for the plant location because “Moose Jaw does not have a sufficient base of irrigated acres.”

The Lethbridge plant will employ 400 people and need potatoes from 9,000 acres annually. That requires about 30,000 acres of irrigated land as potatoes should only be grown on the same field once every three years. Saskatchewan irrigators planted 3,800 aces of potatoes this year out of about 118,000 acres in irrigation districts. The Saskatchewan-born Miller consulted on a 100,000-acre potential irrigation project from Tugaske to Marquis in the 1990s, and consulted on a 2010 report that recommended a joint irrigation Qu’Appelle water conveyance project from Lake Diefenbaker to Buffalo Pound Lake.

Unless the $1.2 billon conveyance project is built, the study noted, Saskatchewan could face water limitations by 2020.

The Saskatchewan government actively courted a potato processor in the 1990s with development of SPUDCO, a crown-owned potato utility. SPUDCO had a mandate to develop the potato industry into more than 10,000 acres and attract a French fry processor. Unfortunately, SPUDCO concentrated on one potato variety, which turned a dark colour when deep fried. SPUDCO went into receivership, cre- ating a political scandal and Saskatchewan potato acreage began to decline. Lethbridge won the plant over 10 other jurisdictions, including the County of Lethbridge. The city anted up $41.5 million for infrastructure, services and landscaping. The Province of Alberta lent the city $15 million.

The plant will open in 2019 replacing a Cavendish Farms facility that uses potatoes from 1,400 acres every year.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@ sasktel.net