Agricultural News
Canola Plant Moves Forward with Close of Real Estate Deal
Tue, 29 Apr 2014 05:28:47 CDT
PICO Northstar Oklahoma LLC closed on the purchase last Tuesday morning of 400-acres of land for a new canola processing plant in Garfield County, Oklahoma.
When the canola plant is fully operational, it will support 60 full-time jobs and crush 760,000 tons of canola annually.
"In addition to the plant's payroll, the bigger impact is the opportunity the refinery will present for regional Oklahoma farmers," said Brent Kisling, executive director of the Enid Regional Development Alliance. "Winter canola, a crop that is well-suited to the climate here and serves as a first-rate rotation crop, is a game-changer for Oklahoma agriculture."
"Northstar is a great addition to the Oklahoma agricultural community and the canola plant will provide a vital point of delivery for Oklahoma producers," said Tom Evans of Encompass Financial Services in Enid, Okla., the firm that brokered the real estate transaction.
The Enid canola crushing facility will continue PICO Northstar's record of innovation in US agriculture. Northstar's fully integrated canola processing and refining plant near Hallock, Minnesota, was the first purpose-built canola processing facility in the United States and the first fully-integrated canola processing and refining plant in the state of Minnesota. The Enid plant will be the second.
"Our first project in Hallock went very smoothly, so we have a pretty good script to follow and a great team in place to build the plant," said NorthStar Agri Industries President Neil Juhnke. "We have a shovel-ready project when canola acres in the region grow enough to support it. The plant will operate 345 days a year when completed. Northstar Agri Industries is confident that canola will be a boon to the local economy in Northern Oklahoma. We look forward to expanding on our success in the upper Great Plains here in Oklahoma by increasing both canola acreage in Oklahoma and the producers' crop stability."
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