JOHNSTOWN — Eastern and east-central Ontario will be home to a second major grain purchaser by December of this year.
GreenField Ethanol will begin bringing corn into the Johnstown plant in November and begin the commissioning process in early December.
"We have already purchased several million bushels of new crop," Vice President Bliss Baker said in an interview.
Altogether, the Johns-town plant will purchase 20 million bushels of locally grown corn under the Ontario buy direct program. The program allows Ontario producers exclusively to sell their corn directly to Greenfield.
The Johnstown plant has the capacity to produce 200 million litres of ethanol a year along with the by-product, 163,000 tonnes of dried distiller grain.
Bliss said that eastern Ontario didn’t have enough livestock to use up that much distiller grain. He says some of the grain will be sold to New York State and Pennsylvania.
Greenfield is Canada’s largest ethanol producer with three plants already in operation: Chatham and Tiverton in Ontario, and Varennes in Quebec. A fifth plant is being built at Hensall, Ontario.
The plant has cost $185 million dollars to get into operation and is expected to produce 200 million litres of ethanol per year. It covers about 48 acres and will employ 46 permanent workers. To sell corn contact Greenfield Ethanol at 1-800-471-3661.
Greenfield Ethanol
AT A GLANCE
Size: 200 million litres per year
Cost of the plant: $185 million
Greenhouse gas reductions: 370,000 tonnes per year – the equivalent of
taking 46,000 cars off the road each year
Co-products: 163,000 tonnes of dried distillers’ grains (high protein animal
feed) and 158,000 tonnes of CO2 (ingredient in soft drinks) per year
Corn required per year: 20 million bushels from local producers
Federal government contribution: $15 million towards the construction of the
Johnstown plant under the Ethanol Expansion Program
Economic impact: A 200 million litre per year ethanol plant has the
potential to expand the local economic base by more than $200 million
Producer programs: GreenField buys corn directly from local farmers through
its Ontario Buy Direct Program