Update at Sandy Row Soybean Processing Facility

Early in the morning on February 22nd, the Sevita International soybean processing facility located near Inkerman, Ontario suffered a significant fire. We are pleased to report that no one was injured as a result of the fire that occurred outside of business hours. The cause of the fire is currently unknown. 

^{Photo from the summer of 2023.}

^{Photo taken February 23, 2024. Following the fire.}

For 30 years, this facility has served Eastern Ontario soybean growers and exported soybeans to food manufacturers around the world. Over the years, we have expanded upon the facility and recently underwent a $7 million investment to incorporate additional seed and export processing. The original portion of the plant was our primary export processing facility for Eastern Ontario, while the expansion served as the seed (for planting) processing facility. The original portion of the facility has been completely destroyed. We are very grateful that fire suppressant measures installed between the two facilities were effective and we maintain function of the renovated facility. Seed for the 2024 planting season was stored in the newly renovated portion of the facility and has not been affected. At this time, we are evaluating options for resuming our export operations as many of the grain bins at the facility are filled with soybeans from the 2023 harvest, ready to be processed and shipped internationally.  

Sevita representatives have been in touch with many of our growers, dealers, and international customers and we continue to reach out to ensure they are updated on the situation and that we remain fully committed to supporting them.  

We are immensely grateful for the support and assistance we received in the wake of this unfortunate situation. Sandy Hart, General Manager of Sevita, says: “This is a difficult situation but one that I am confident we will overcome as we have with all challenges in the past. We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated group of employees here at Sevita. We would like to extend our immense gratitude to our local first responders who arrived on scene overnight to get things under control and prevent further destruction.” We want to give a special thank you to Winchester Foodland, Steve Baird, Horst Systems, and Storm Internet for their prompt response. We are very grateful for these local businesses and their devoted partnership.  

 Any further questions can be directed to Anna Stubbings, at 613-402-1068. 

Sevita International is a Canadian-owned and operated soybean company proudly serving growers in our communities and end-users around the world. Sevita focuses exclusively on creating value through the soybean supply chain from breeding and genetics to supplying the international soy food and beverage markets. Sevita has offered Canadian growers top-performing traited and high-demand food-grade varieties to Canadian farmers for over 25 years. Sevita’s superior products, value-added grower programs, and great local team are the means by which Sevita cultivates mutually beneficial partnerships with farmers across Canada. Sevita International has offices located in Woodstock and Inkerman, Ontario with field representatives located across Eastern Canada. The company employs 60-70 full-time individuals around the country with an additional seed dealer network that carry Sevita products.