The new flour mill will be located on Pier 10 at the Port of Hamilton, adjacent to Parrish & Heimbecker’s existing grain storage and export terminal, which opened in 2011.
“We’re very proud that Parrish & Heimbecker chose to expand its footprint at the Port of Hamilton, and we look forward to working with the company to develop this facility,” said Bruce Wood, President & CEO of the Hamilton Port Authority. “P&H has been instrumental in putting Hamilton and its Port on Ontario’s agri-food map.”
More than $100 million in agri-food -related investments have been made at the Port of Hamilton in less than a decade. These terminal investments are part of a growing agri-food cluster in Hamilton that generates more than a billion dollars in economic activity each year. Agricultural cargo has increased as a proportion of the port’s total tonnage, from 9% (815,000 Metric Tonnes) in 2008, to 20% (2 million MT) in 2014.
The Port of Hamilton’s role as a primary agri-food gateway is leading in turn to the attraction of higher-order food processing enterprises, like Parrish and Heimbecker’s new four mill, SucroCan’s sugar refinery and Collective Arts/Nickel Brook’s craft brewery, all established within the last three years. “Together with our tenants, we help Ontario farmers get their grain to international markets, we import crop inputs for Ontario farms, and we house food manufacturing, warehousing and transportation assets that help keep Ontario’s food economy moving,” said Bruce Wood.
The Port of Hamilton offers agri-food producers a highly valuable combination of location and transportation efficiency. The largest port in Ontario, it is located on the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway, is served by CN and CP railways, and offers direct highway access a short distance from the US border.