World Grain - January 2023 - 48

FEATURE: OATS IN HIGH DEMAND FOR MILK PRODUCTION
ed. " About 10% is burned as biofuel or pelleted for
home fireplaces; 20% are used for poultry bedding,
since oat hulls are highly absorbent; and the remaining
70% of the hulls are used for fiber content in animal
feed, mainly for cattle with some also used in hog
rations. The hulls are a low-density, high volume and
low-priced product, making it difficult to ship them
long distances. They are mainly used by small, local
livestock operators near the oat mills. "
Industry structure
Until this year, there had been only six major oat milling
plants in Canada. Richardson Milling Ltd., a subsidiary
of Richardson International Ltd., Canada's largest domestically
owned agribusiness company, is the leader
with ownership of three plants having a combined daily
output capacity of 21,400 cwts (1,100 tonnes).
Richardson International also ranks as one of the
top global oat millers thanks to its purchase in 2013 of
the 6,400-cwt oat mill in South Sioux City, Nebraska,
US, at about the same time it bought the three mills in
Canada. In 2017, the company acquired European Oat
Milling in Bedford, UK, the second largest oat miller in
Europe, since renamed Richardson Milling.
The No. 2 Canadian player is Grain Millers Canada
Corp., with a plant in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, that has
added new processing lines within the last five years.
Its US parent company, Grain Millers, Inc., also has a
large oat mill in Iowa and a third facility in Eugene,
Oregon, US.
A joint venture between a pair of Chilean and
Mexican food companies purchased the single plant of
Canadian Oats Milling Ltd. in Edmonton 11 years ago.
Most of its output is exported.
In recent years, the majority of Mexico's oat imports
have come from Canada with the exception of 2022 due
to the 2021 drought year, said Shawna Mathieson, executive
director of the Prairie Oat Growers Association
(POGA). In a phone call she noted, " Oat exports from
Canada to Mexico have more than tripled between 2015
and 2020, in part thanks to POGA's marketing efforts. "
48
Canada accounts for 85%
of North American oat
production. In 2022, its crop
came in at 4.6 million tonnes
after drought limited the 2021
harvest to 2.6 million tonnes.
Mathieson also observed that Canada is the world's
largest oat exporting country. Even with a doubling of
exports in the last 10 years to 550,000 tonnes, Australia
is still a distant No. 2, according to USDA data.
PepsiCo, through its subsidiary Quaker Foods North
America, is a major player in the oat market in both
Canada and the United States. Its 100-year-old 4,000cwt
mill in Petersborough, Ontario, Canada, is the
only large one operating outside the Prairies, while its
20,000-cwt mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US, has the capacity
to process most of the US crop.
Burgeoning food grade oat demand has led to construction
of two new milling facilities by newcomers to
the sector. Privately-held Canadian company Paterson
GlobalFoods (PGF) has launched a subsidiary called O
Foods Ltd. that is building a plant designed and manufactured
by Switzerland-based Bühler. At 250,000
tonnes annual output capacity, it will be Canada's largest
oat mill. Its greenfield site is at the junction of major
rail lines outside of Winnipeg where PGF is headquartered.
Completion was set for the end of 2022.
Regina-based multinational AGT Food and
Ingredient Inc. also announced a 2022 expansion of its
Aberdeen, Saskatchewan, operation that will include
an oat milling line to complement its strong position
in sourcing and trading of pulses on three continents.
The company has subsidiaries in Australia and Turkey.
Production of enzyme-based, concentrated slurries
from food grade oats is an intermediary step between
January 2023 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
Prairie Oat Growers Association
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World Grain - January 2023

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