Manitoba Oat Processor Getting State-of-the-Art Equipment

A Manitoba oat processor will be home to first-in-Canada technology as part of a major plant expansion.

The project at Altona-based Buffalo Creek Mills includes the installation of state-of-the-art equipment that will produce both conventional and emerging new oat products for human consumption. Processing capacity at the plant will also be increased to 54,000 tonnes/year.

Up to $5.1 million in federal funding was announced for the project on Monday.

Buffalo Creek Mills currently produces non-stabilized oat groats (the hulled kernel of the oat grain) for sales to the North American market and processes it into a variety of commercial human-grade oat products as well as pet-grade products including oat groats, feed oats, groats chips, ground oat hulls, and hull pellets animal feed, pet food and biofuel industries.

However, the installation of a customized continuous oat kiln with first-in-Canada functionality and associated processing and packaging equipment will allow Buffalo Creek to further process oats for use as conventional food ingredients and for the creation of emerging oat products, said a federal release.

Byproducts will be repurposed for use in animal feed and biofuels as part of an initiative to participate in a zero waste circular economy, the release added.