How Lantic’s Taber sugar factory sweetens the local economy

Posted on October 1, 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Nerissa McNaughton
Southern Alberta Newspapers

Drive along the highway by Taber, and you cannot miss it. The sugar factory has been a fixture on the town’s skyline since 1950, its stacks a familiar landmark to generations of southern Albertans. For many locals, it is simply “the sugar plant,” but behind that plain-spoken name sits a piece of Canadian food history—and an economic engine that reaches far beyond the beet fields of the region.

The plant belongs to Lantic Inc., the largest Canadian-owned and operated sugar and natural sweetener company in the country. Taber is home to Canada’s only sugar beet factory, which makes the town a genuinely unique player in the national food supply chain. From the farmers who plant the crops each spring to the industrial bakeries that buy the finished product, the ripple effects touch a surprising number of people.

Why is Taber home to Canada’s only sugar beet factory?

Sugar in Canada comes from two sources: imported raw cane sugar, refined at coastal plants, and sugar beets grown domestically. Alberta is the only province that produces sugar from sugar beets, and Taber is where those beets are processed.

The roots run deep. Rogers Sugar’s involvement in Alberta’s beet industry dates to the 1930s, with early factories at Raymond and Picture Butte. The Taber factory itself opened in 1950 (Lantic Rogers). Today, following the 2008 merger of Lantic Sugar Limited and Rogers Sugar Ltd., the plant operates under Lantic Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Sugar Inc. that has been part of the Canadian food industry since 1888.

Adam James, Lantic’s vice president of sugar manufacturing, points to the depth of that history. “We’ve been part of the community in Southern Alberta and Taber specifically for decades,” he says. “We play a big part in the whole agricultural cycle, and we like to think we have a great partnership with our growers and fit within their agricultural cycle really nicely.”

How farmers play a part and where jobs are made

Each year, Rogers Sugar contracts with growers to plant roughly 25,000 to 30,000 acres of sugar beets to supply the Taber plant. About 200 farm families take part, and sugar beets rank among Alberta’s main irrigated crops.

Employment stretches well beyond the factory floor. Around 800 workers are directly tied to sugar beet farming in Alberta, including full-time, part-time, seasonal, and contract roles. The plant itself has a processing capacity of 150,000 tonnes and ranks among the most advanced sugar beet facilities in North America. A $40 million expansion completed in 1999 boosted the plant’s capacity by 50 per cent, and the wastewater facility built alongside it generated more than 20,000 hours of employment on its own.

A separate provincial study puts hard figures on the wider picture. According to the Economic Impact of Alberta’s Sugar Beet Industry report, the industry supports roughly 2,150 jobs annually across direct, indirect, and induced employment.

What Is the Sugar Beet Industry Worth to
Alberta’s Economy?

The total economic impact of Alberta’s sugar beet industry—direct, indirect, and induced—is estimated at approximately $248.61 million annually, according to the Government of Alberta. That figure includes a GDP impact of more than $198 million and a wage or labour income impact of roughly $50 million.

Taber does not operate in isolation. It is one node in a national network that keeps Canadian food processors supplied with high-quality, competitively priced sugar.

“Taber is part of our network which supports the whole of Canada,” James confirms, “but obviously has a focus on Alberta and the Prairies specifically. There are some key industrial customers that are supported out of Taber.”

The plant produces granulated and powdered sugars in several package sizes, plus two types of liquid sugar—liquid sucrose and liquid invert sugar—shipped to industrial customers by bulk tanker. It also supplies retail shelves.

As James notes, “We’re a strong retail brand, and you will find Rogers and Lantic bags of sugar in all the major grocery stores. There’s a really big and proud element that Taber plays in that as well.”

The Taber operation carries a distinction that no other Canadian sugar can match. Beet sugar produced in Alberta from Alberta sugar beets is the only sugar that qualifies for export to the United States under quotas for “originating” Canadian sugar. That gives the plant a strategic role in trade that reaches across the border.

The wider Canadian sugar industry is substantial. It produces roughly 1.4 million tonnes of refined sugar each year across four provinces, with an estimated value of shipments of about $1.75 billion in 2023.

Notably, the industry receives no government subsidies and prices its sugar against world markets—one reason refined sugar in Canada generally costs 30 to 40 per cent less than in the United States. That price advantage helps Alberta food and beverage manufacturers compete, since sugar ingredient costs in the province run less than half of what they are at American locations.

Innovative Equipment and Processes

Keeping pace in the agri-food world means being proactive.

“A lot of our focus around innovation and improvements is around efficiency,” James says. He pointed to an $8 million investment made five to six years ago aimed at improving energy efficiency and the quality of air the plant emits into the local area.

“Anything we can do to improve our energy efficiency is a big focus area for us,” James continues, adding that the company has also poured money into smaller projects such as better insulation—”simple things that you might do in your home, but on an industrial scale.”

Product packaging is another area of experimentation. James described a new bag designed to hold a jam and jelly sugar product, sold in some larger local grocery stores.

“That’s a new innovative type of packaging we’re trying in the marketplace.”

Lantic’s Local Support

The factory’s contribution is not measured only in tonnes and dollars. Lantic is a steady supporter of local causes, and the scale of that giving surprised even the company when it tallied it up.

“In the past year we’ve actually donated to 45 good causes in the local area,” James says.

Lantic’s main community partners include the Taber Food Bank, the Taber Health Foundation and local children’s sports teams.

“We are a major player within the food manufacturing chain in Canada, so we focus a lot on something that’s close to our home,” James said. “Yes, we like to support lots of people, but the main focus for us is the Taber Food Bank.”

A Sweet but Quiet Anchor for Southern
Alberta

Taber’s sugar factory rarely makes national headlines, yet it does the steady work that keeps a regional economy humming. It gives roughly 200 farm families a reliable buyer for a high-value crop, employs hundreds of southern Albertans, feeds sugar into food processors from the Prairies to export markets, and reinvests in the town through dozens of local causes each year.

As harvest rolls in and the beet trucks line up at the plant, that cycle begins again—much as it has since 1950. For anyone curious about where their sugar comes from, the answer, in large part, is right here in southern Alberta.

To learn more about the plant and its parent company, visit Lantic Rogers at lanticrogers.com, or read the Canadian Sugar Institute’s overview of sugar’s value to the Canadian economy at sugar.ca.