SaskFerco Products Ltd., Belle
Plaine, January 1993.
SaskFerco Products Inc., which began production in 1992, is a commercial joint venture involving Cargill Ltd. (50%), Investment Saskatchewan (49%) and Citibank Canada (1%). Located near the village of Belle Plaine, west of Regina, SaskFerco is one of North America's largest producers of two types of nitrogen fertilizer: granular urea and anhydrous ammonia.
Built at a cost of $435 million, the facility now produces 2,850 tonnes of granular urea, the solid form of nitrogen fertilizer, per day; 1,860 tonnes of anhydrous ammonia, a liquid, per day; and 670 tonnes of urea ammonium nitrate, known as UAN solution, per day. Farmers in western Canada and the northern tier of the United States are the main customers of these products. Granular urea production was expanded in 1997 and the UAN solution facility was added in 2004.
SaskFerco is the largest natural gas customer in Saskatchewan, requiring 25 billion cubic feet (BCF) annually to make the nitrogen fertilizer. It is unique in the global fertilizer industry because no wastewater from the facility is dumped into any river, lake, or stream. All SaskFerco wastewater is disposed of in an evaporation pond located within the 80-acre production site.
SaskFerco employs 140 people full-time at its Belle Plaine manufacturing complex and corporate office in Regina. The company has a granular urea warehouse in Carmen, Manitoba.
Joe Ralko