The minds behind Kroeker Farms Ltd. are taking steps to position the family-owned potato powerhouse as the leader in their field into the next 20 years and beyond with a new state-of-the-art facility, report Pembina Valley’s Steven Sukkau.
The agricultural producer and distributor located in Winkler, Manitoba recently turned the switch on a nearly 70,000 sq. ft. washing/packing plant at their Circle K Drive location.
CEO Wayne Rempel (pictured) explains they’ve greatly expanded into organic potato varieties, making them the largest organic potato producer in Canada, and continue to ship across North America. “The market has changed a lot over the years, and we’ve had lots of expansion opportunities because of the excellent quality we produce in our area.”
However, they were limited by their processing capacity for washing and packing product. Prior to the expansion, they were running two shifts 24 hours a day with over-time, “We were maxed out,” Rempel explains. “We couldn’t ship anymore. Even though we had market opportunities to expand… we couldn’t take those on because we limited by the capacity.”
The new plant offers more capacity, a better quality wash and sorts more sizes of potatoes. The facility also employs a number of efficiencies that drastically cut back on water usage.
Efficiency is the key to the future, Rempel says. “This is really going to help us be competitive across North America.”
Read the full report and watch a video on Pembina Valley Online here
