Screen Capture: https://agristo.com/timeline
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KFGO) – Grand Forks City Administrator Todd Feland updated the city council Monday on a recent meeting between city leaders and a European potato producer planning a plant in Grand Forks.
Feland said the trip to Belgium to tour Agristo headquarters and farms was very productive. He says the city council should see a development timeline for the project by June or July once Agristo works out details with BNSF Railway and secures a land purchase.
“They are working on the layout,” Feland said. “They’re looking at a general contractor in the near future to help build this facility and then working on engineering and contracting.”
Feland said construction on the plant is expected to begin in 2026 with installation of equipment in 2027. Production is planned to start in the fall of 2028.
“Of course, they need to grow potatoes at the same time,” Feland said. “That’s the really important part of starting a new industry is that, as they start to develop this facility on the site that they’re looking for – and they are trying to land the Fufeng site. That is the preferred choice – they also need to work on the ag production side.”
Councilwoman Rebecca Osowski was also on the trip and said she wanted to check out the smell.
“We do not want to have the same problem that we had with Simplot,” Osowski said. “The people at Agristo were very willing to talk and communicate with me. One thing they do is put up concrete buildings, but inside they have different sections – so, almost buildings within buildings. Besides one room that really smelled bad, we could walk around the rest of the plant and we weren’t really bothered with the smell.”
Osowski said she feels confident that if Agristo builds the facility it says it will, she doesn’t think there should be issues with the smell.
Agristo plans to invest up to $450 million to build the facility. The project will create 300 to 350 direct jobs.
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