FRANCE – Roquette, a global leader in innovative plant-based food ingredients, has celebrated its ground-breaking of its pea-protein manufacturing site to be built in Manitoba, Canada.
The event, which was graced by the presence of local authorities and First Nation’s representatives, constituted a major step forward since Roquette had earlier in January announced an investment over US$320 million to build the site.
“We are thrilled to celebrate our new site’s ground-breaking today in Portage-La-Prairie, and to start working with our local partners on the next phases of this project.
This represents a major step in our development strategy in North America and in the plant protein business, and we are looking forward to offering our pea-protein products from Portage-la-Prairie, at the heart of Manitoba, to customers and consumers in America and worldwide”, stated Jean-Marc Gilson, CEO of Roquette.
Pea protein offers many advantages to farmers, customers and consumers since its production is environmentally friendly and a great source of protein.
It also has numerous applications in gluten-free foods, vegetarian, senior and clinical nutrition.
“The Manitoba government is incredibly proud to participate in the groundbreaking of Roquette’s ambitious new pea processing facility,” said Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister.
“Roquette is a world leader in sustainable protein production and their historical investment in Manitoba will have a profound impact on our agriculture industry and the provincial economy.
This project and our partnership truly demonstrate that Manitoba is open for business and ready to compete for investment in the world market.”
The industrial unit will also expand Roquette’s pea protein production capacity and help address the growing customer demand for plant-based proteins in North America.
It will also reinforce Roquette’s global leadership in plant protein products, which would thereby reaffirm its strategy to develop specialities for food, nutrition and health markets.
With the new site in place, it will complement Roquette’s existing pea production facility in Vic-sur-Aisne (France) where the company had announced an additional US$47.7 million in June.
“We are pleased with the Roquette Canada’s decision to utilize our recently created Southern Chiefs’ Organization human resource data base to match our labour force with their employment needs” commented Grand Chief Jerry Daniels from the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO).
“Roquette’s commitment to this partnership will also stimulate the economies of our southern communities.
This partnership is the first of a wide range of partnerships that SCO is in the process of developing with industry to support its’ economic development goals”, continued Grand Chief Jerry Daniels.
