(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Oat Processing in Saskatchewan

Federal funds issued for oat processing facility

Aug 27, 2019 | 4:12 PM

Avena Foods has received a $1.8 million repayable interest free loan for an oat processing plant just south of Regina.

Avena CEO Gord Flaten said the funds will be used to build the facility at Rowatt, Sask.

“We’re expanding our business. We operate oats processing and pulse processing facilities and this is going towards an oat processing facility that is going to help us provide better quality control on the oats that we’re buying from farmers and supplying to customers,” Flaten said. “It’s also going to give us a chance to provide better marketing options for the farmers delivering to us as well.”

Flaten said the federal loan is extremely important in meeting rising demand for oat products and the loan will help to build the facility sooner then they might have been able to otherwise and manage cash flow.

“We can use some of our cash for some other investments to keep growing in Saskatchewan. It provides an incentive to expand here. It enables us to expand faster than what we may have been able to. I think it’s a really smart investment,” he said.

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Flaten said the market for his products is growing by 15 to 25 per cent a year and is shipped all over the world.

“We sell some in Canada. The largest percentage goes into the United States but more is going to Europe. Also we’re selling to Latin America and some into Asia.

“The plant-based food sector is very popular right now and we have been in that for decades in our business and it’s growing very fast. So keeping up with demand is a big issue and we need to build new facilities like this in order to be successful,” Flaten said.

Avena employs 88 people and will be hiring more as the company expands.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF