Canada is the world's biggest yellow pea producer, making it fit to put the world's biggest pea protein processing facility just west of Portage la Prairie.
The Roquette pea protein processing plant in Portage has been offering tours for select groups, showing them the gigantic facility built at a cost of over $600 million. Roquette has plants that produce plant-based products that are even bigger than this one, but ours is the world's largest pea protein plant.
Roquette Canada communications and public affairs manager Michelle Finley says yellow peas are a popular source of protein, which Roquette calls their NUTRALYS® line of ingredients. She notes yellow peas have such a well-balanced amino acids profile and have easy digestibility. Amino acids are critical to human Health and Human nutrition.
Finley explains there are five labs onsite at the facility, including three in their administration and maintenance building. There's the quality lab, microbiology lab, and sensory lab. Two more satellite labs are in the plant sites.
She says the company was pleasantly surprised when produce began arriving.
"When Roquette was considering where to locate this pea protein plant, they knew they were going to locate it in Canada," says Finley. "Canada is the largest producer of peas in the world. And Roquette likes to locate its facilities very close to its raw material sources. When they came to Canada, they narrowed down quickly that it was going to be Manitoba or Saskatchewan. Now, Saskatchewan, we figured, would supply more peas. They grow more peas than Manitoba, but in reality, when we went out and started working with growers, Manitoba growers really stepped up. They were very eager to work with Roquette and ended up supplying more peas. It was about 70 per cent from Manitoba and 30 per cent from Saskatchewan the first time we went out and contracted with growers."
She notes this might change in the future,
"We are geared up to hit full capacity in early 2022, and that capacity will be processing 125,000 metric tonnes of yellow peas annually," adds Finley. "We like to source our raw materials within about no more than an eight-hour drive from the plant. That's where we're at now and we are fully confident that Saskatchewan and Manitoba growers are going to be able to supply those peas to us."
Finley outlines the upcoming grand opening.
"We are planning a very exciting virtual grand opening event," says Finley. "It's being held on November 17th. The theme of the event is called 'Plants for the Future,' so that's a bit of play on words. We think that pea protein is the way of the future and this plant is very futuristic. It's a plant for the future, as well. We're very excited. Our guest host is Commander Hadfield, Canada's famous astronaut, and we also have Canadian chef, Michael Smith, who's going to do some cooking segments for us."
She says the virtual opening has an invite list, and any extra spots are going to employees and their families.
"We've invited local officials and our suppliers," continues Finley. "We've invited growers -- all of those people have played such a tremendous role. Roquette is really thankful for the support of the Rural Municipality of Portage and the City of Portage la Prairie, and we really owe this community a tremendous gratitude for helping support us along the way. We did break ground here in 2017 and here we are at the end of 2021 and starting the plant up."
Finley notes they accepted their first load of peas almost exactly one year ago.
"We've used those peas in the commissioning and startup process at the plant," adds Finley. "It's a product that goes into many different healthy foods at you'll find it in milk alternatives, meat alternatives, peanut butter, non-dairy ice cream, coffee creamer, and you can find it in lots of different food that you're probably already eating now."
She explains plant-based proteins are not just for vegetarians and vegans anymore.
"Many people are building plant-based products and pea protein-based products into their daily lives," notes Finley. "We call those folks flexitarians. They're just looking for the nutritional benefits in pea protein and Roquette pea protein is perfect for that."
Finley says that they're also certified for halal and kosher foods, and is close to gaining their organic certification.
"The plant is very versatile," adds Finley.
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