YORKTON - The Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) is a significant player in the agriculture sector and that included the agricultural processing complex here in Yorkton.
That was part of the LDC story shared by Brian Conn, LDC’s Country Manager for Canada in a presentation last Wednesday as the keynote speaker for the annual Yorkton Brick Mill Heritage Society Dinner.
Conn said as a company LDC is focused on providing food, fuel, feed and fibre “to our customers worldwide.”
To accomplish that mandate LDC “is involved in many parts of the supply chain,” he added, noting that even includes at the retail level in places such as Brazil, India and China.
“South America has been a real hub for the business in recent years.”
The company is involved in numerous commodities including coffee, rice, sugar, cotton and orange juice.
That said LDC’s involvement in grains and oilseeds is the company’s largest area of operation.
The canola plant in Yorkton launched in 1991, and currently going through a site expansion which will twin the facility and more than double capacity, is part of that.
Conn added they are diverse in oilseeds as they also deal in soybean and palm oil.
The Yorkton plant produces a table ready oil which means “all that valued added is done right here in Yorkton,” said Conn.
The oil goes out by rail tanker to various markets, for bottling for retail sales – about 10 per cent of sales, into the restaurant trade, and into processing of other products.
Having access to the two rail lines (CN and CP) as they do in Yorkton was a major draw to the city, and remains crucial to business today for LDC.
“A facility this size really needs to have access to both,” offered Conn.
Most of the oil is sold into North America – 70 per cent to the United States, and the remaining 30 per cent in Canada, or Mexico.
Given the markets Conn said Yorkton is well-located in terms of distribution to either North American coast which is an advantage.
Canola meal too is shipped across the continent, generally ending up in dairy cattle rations.
“Anywhere dairy cattle are in North America we follow it,” he said, adding meal “prices best into dairy rations.”
In terms of size when the twin facility currently under construction is complete the combined facilities will more than double current capacity to two million tonnes processed annually.
Conn added that the expanded capacity will produce “more than Japan import in its entirety (annually).”
In addition to canola crushing, locally LDC has begun construction on a new pea protein isolate production plant in Yorkton.
Pea protein “is a brand new area for LDC,” said Conn, adding “we have some experience on the space.”
Conn said the company believes it can develop markets for the protein which go beyond the commonly thought of meat alternative market, to include sport nutrition drinks and other foods.
Conn said the pea plant is a good fit locally as peas are grown in the same area as canola and they have established relationships with farmers here already.
With the combined facilities locally Yorkton is the site of LDC’s largest investment as a single locale worldwide, said Conn.
“Yorkton is a great place to be. A great place to grow in.”
While the scale and reach of LDC is now global – in 100 countries with more than 18,000 employees, Conn also noted that LDC is a “family-owned business started in 1851” and is “still managed by family members.”
