Province funds Vitalus plant expansion

A massive expansion of BC’s milk processing capacity received an infusion of $25 million from the province this week.

Premier David Eby and Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Minister Brenda Bailey announced the funding April 23 at Vitalus Nutrition Inc. in Abbotsford.

The funding is provided as part of the province’s blueprint for clean industrial development, also launched at the event. It will support the development of a 143,500-square-foot plant able to accommodate 500 million litres of milk annually from across Western Canada. This is four times that of the existing plant, which is operating at capacity.

The new plant marks a significant increase to dairy processing capacity in BC, where farms produced 801 million litres of milk last year.

BC Milk Marketing Board estimates indicate the new plant will require a 17% increase in production across the Western Milk Pool, which includes producers in the four Western provinces. Based on last year’s production of 2.3 billion litres, that works out to an additional 397 million litres of milk.

“The true impact of this investment will be across Western Canada,” Eby said. “The expansion of this facility will mean billions of additional dollars of dairy quota for farmers in British Columbia and other parts of Western Canada who will be able to create thousands of additional jobs in our province.”

The new plant will produce butter as well as address the structural surplus of product within the milk industry through the production of milk protein concentrate and other specialized products.

Construction of the new facility is set to begin this summer and complete by fall 2026.

Vitalus’ plant isn’t the only expansion of capacity taking place within the BC milk processing sector.

Surrey’s Punjab Milk Foods Inc. announced plans last fall to consolidate its operations in a 296,000-square-foot plant producing a variety of South Asian dairy products for markets across Canada and overseas.

The projects follow on a report the BC Dairy Association undertook in 2021 to explore ways of expanding dairy processing capacity in the province.

The report recommended the appointment of a business development officer for the BC industry as well as the hiring of an industry-led dairy processing specialist to guide innovation.