A planned $30 million expansion of the Port of Oshawa is expected to provide farmers in the central part of the province with a better means to move their grain.
The so-called Port of Oshawa Export Expansion Plan will extend the marine infrastructure to accommodate two docked vessels, improve loading and unloading times, expand storage capacity with the addition of a new grain silo, upgrade roads and improve stormwater management.
In particular, the planned improvements will better support grain farmers in central Ontario, offering a more practical transport solution than trucking their grains across the Greater Toronto Area to the port in Hamilton, according to a release from the Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority (HOPA). Indeed, improving grain storage and upgrading the terminal at the Oshawa is also expected to remove an estimated 12,000 long-distance heavy truck trips from local highways.
Over the coming decades, the growth of Ontario’s grain production for export is expected to increase by 2 million tonnes, with at least 300,000 tonnes expected to be produced within the Port of Oshawa’s catchment area. Oshawa currently exports nearly 75,000 tonnes of grain/year, with the goal to boost that number to 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes.