After 6 month pause, Sask. based pulse production plant back up and running

After a six-month shutdown, grains and pulses are once again moving out of an Avonlea production facility. Damian Smith reports.

After being shut down for six months in 2025, grains and pulses are being shipped out to partners in Saskatchewan from Avonlea once again.

In January, AgroHall Foods Industries Ltd. announced its acquisition of a pulse production plant, located in Avonlea. The facility is a subsidiary of Agro Companies International SA, a company based out of Switzerland.

“It was hard to see it was just empty,” said Leah Daniel, a grain buyer with AgroHall Foods, who has worked on the plant since 2004. “It’s a great facility, and to just see it with nothing happening, it was tough.”

“I never would have dreamt that I was working for a company in Avonlea owned in Switzerland, it’s crazy,” said Sarah Hogdson, the plant manager, who’s lived in Avonlea for the last 20 years.

According to AgroHall Foods, they have about 40 major partners they supply to, with all of them being around Saskatchewan.

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“They wanted a place to haul their lentils to a close place and not have to drive two hours away to sell their crops that are literally right beside us,” Hodgson said.

While canola fields are located right beside the plant, the company ships out lentils, beans, chickpeas and oilseeds, while aiming to send out 1,000 metric tons per week.

“We’re fortunate that we had people in the community that had a lot of foresight, and they wanted industry in our town,” Daniel said.

Since the plant was built in 2003 by local farmers, the town of around 400 people is happy for the exporter to be back in business.

“It’s a huge part of the community, that’s what they want,” Hodgson said. ”This place means as much to them, the growers, as it does to us of having a reliable company here. We just want to grow with them.”