Louis Dreyfus plans a pea-protein plant in Yorkton

Louis Dreyfus Company plans a pea-protein isolate plant at its Yorkton complex in Saskatchewan, Canada. Its 7 February 2024 announcement envisaged readiness by the end of 2025 and approximately 60 employees. The plant would use proprietary technology developed at the company's Livermore research centre.

Intended applications

Taste-neutral ingredients for dairy alternatives.
High-protein nutrition and other plant-based products.

Research foundation for the business

The company launched its Plant Proteins business on 15 March 2022 and inaugurated a dedicated research facility in California's San Francisco Bay Area. It had recruited business developers, researchers and engineers during 2021. The new operation was intended to combine protein extraction with formulation for food and beverage applications.

Manoj Kumar, then vice president for Plant Proteins, supervised the California team. The laboratory and pilot plant would develop ingredients, assess their technical and commercial value and build expertise for further applications. The launch announcement targeted an initial North American range of non-GMO isolates by the end of 2022.

Yorkton's preceding canola expansion

A separate 11 April 2023 company announcement described an additional canola crushing line at the same complex. Construction was expected later that year. The completed expansion would more than double annual crushing capacity to over two million metric tonnes. The operation produced food-grade canola oil and livestock feed meal.

The facility had operated since 2009 and employed approximately 120 people then. Its location provided access to Canadian canola-growing areas, two railway connections and road infrastructure. Chief executive Michael Gelchie presented the investment as supporting processing and sourcing activities while supplying feedstock to renewable-energy producers.

The province's processing objectives

In its own 11 April 2023 statement welcoming the canola project, Saskatchewan's government identified a 2030 objective to crush 75% of the canola grown within the province. The statement also set out broader goals for private capital and agriculture-related revenue.

Those provincial targets included annual private investment of C$16 billion, agri-food exports of C$20 billion and agricultural value-added revenue of C$10 billion. Separately, the government reported actual 2022 exports of C$3.5 billion for canola oil and C$2.7 billion for canola seed, both among the province's three largest agri-food export categories.