Cavendish Farms, Canada, opened the doors to its frozen potato processing plant in Lethbridge, Canada.

“It is a great day for Lethbridge and for our employees, growers, suppliers and customers. Our new state-of-the-art plant is up and running, and will allow us to continue to serve key export markets around the world,” says Robert Irving, president. “There were many reasons we were able to expand our operation in Lethbridge and grow in Alberta. It starts with the availability of high-quality potatoes from local growers, the can-do attitude of our Lethbridge employees and the dedicated effort of the project team and the hundreds of vendors who contributed to this project.”

The new state-of-the-art plant replaces Cavendish Farms’ previous plant, and will almost triple production capacity in Lethbridge. The $430 million plant spans the size of 7 football fields, and will require 735 million pounds of potatoes annually. That’s an increase of almost 12,000 acres over what Cavendish Farms currently contracts from local growers. With this expansion, the Lethbridge plant will now employ 238 people.