Council re-zones land for pulse crop cleaning plant

The Municipal District of Willow Creek council has re-zoned land south of Claresholm to accommodate a pulse cleaning plant and future protein extraction facility.
At its July 8 meeting, council read an application by Koralta Agri-Business to re-zone 21.46 acres at SE-1-12-27-4 two miles south of Claresholm east of Highway 2 from rural general to rural industrial.
They then convened a public hearing to gather input on the application.
Cindy Chisholm, the M.D.’s manager of planning and development, explained there are nine residences, a soy-bean processing plant, and confined feeding operation in the area, but there were no comments from any adjacent landowners.
Supporting documents for the application indicate Phase 1 will be construction of a pulse cleaning plant. The main crop will be blue and white lupins, but also include lentils, chickpeas, yellow peas, faba beans and others.
Phase 2 will be construction of a protein extraction plant, with the raw product to come from the cleaning plant. Extracted protein will be bagged and marketed locally and in South Korea and Southeast Asia as well as North America.
Tristan Choi of Koralta was present at the meeting to answer any questions.
It was noted they export 1,500 tonnes of pulses per month, and need more capacity.
“We want to add value to this market,” Choi said. “I think there’s room to grow and create more jobs and opportunities.”
“It’ll be good for our pea growers and our bean growers,” said Coun. John Kroetsch.
Choi said they need to diversify their customer base, which is currently about 75 per cent in the United States. However, they have networks to South America, Europe and Africa as well.
Se Hong Park, president of Koralta, was also at the meeting and said they are looking in the future to grow lupins, as well as efforts at rice cultivation in Alberta.
Choi said they want to merge what Canada has to offer and what the market needs, and will revolutionize the industry.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a shortage of pulses and grains so, to take advantage of this opportunity, Choi was also asking council to expedite the process so they could build the plant as soon as possible.
He noted Koralta will be working with local farmers and seed producers.
Council also read an application by Koralta Agri-Business to re-zone 4.99 acres at another portion of SE-1-12-27-4 to miles south of Claresholm east of Highway 2 from rural general to rural industrial.
Another public hearing was held but there were no comments from the public.
When council re-convened after the public hearing, it passed all three readings to two bylaws to re-zone the subject lands from rural general to rural industrial use.