It’s a diversified company that operates 39 facilities across five continents and ships products to 127 countries. So why does AGT Foods – one of the largest and most trusted pulse and plant-based food and ingredient companies in the world – choose to do business in Minot?

The answer begins in the fields of North Dakota and Montana: together, they account for 80 percent of U.S. pulse crop production – the peas, lentils, beans, and chickpeas that have become some of the most in-demand ingredients in the global food industry.

"When you're sourcing peas and lentils at the scale we operate, you want to be close to where they grow,” said Eric Bartsch, AGT Foods’ Division Head for Global Food Ingredients. “Minot puts us right in the middle of it.”

For nearly 20 years, AGT Foods, a packaged foods company and global pulses leader based in nearby Regina, Saskatchewan, has set up shop in the heart of American pulse crop country. The company entered business in North Dakota in 2007, culminating in a significant investment in a large-scale pulse ingredient facility in Minot in 2013, along with subsequent upgrades and expansions to add more capacity. Today, the facility remains the anchor tenant of the Logistics Park of North Dakota, and it’s there that the company turns North Dakota-grown pulses into flours, proteins, starches, and more products – and ships them to locations all over the world.

North Dakota’s fertile soil may explain why AGT Foods was first drawn to the Magic City. But what motivates the company not only to stay in Minot, but to expand and invest even more deeply in the community?

The answer lies deeper than the region’s plentiful pulses. It’s thanks in part to community buy-in and economic development efforts that make a major impact.

A few years ago, AGT Foods saw an opportunity to establish a second production facility in the area with a focus on gluten-free pasta products: the AGT Extrusion Center of Excellence. The $9 million facility, which opened in 2024, puts AGT Foods and Minot at the center of innovation in both pulse-based ingredients and now extruded products, such as gluten-free pasta. Recognizable gluten-free products, including under the Veggi brand, are produced in Minot from peas grown in Minot’s backyard – and the facility is currently in the middle of adding more production lines to meet surging demand.

"What we're doing in Minot is value-added agriculture in the truest sense," Bartsch said. "We're taking what North Dakota farmers grow and turning it into products that reach consumers around the world. That's a great story for AGT Foods — and we think it's a great story for this region."

To make such expansions possible, AGT Foods has accessed economic development programs available through local and state partners.

The company utilized the Bank of North Dakota’s PACE Program, which helps lower borrowing costs for businesses making big investments and creating jobs in North Dakota communities. The City of Minot, through its MAGIC Fund (short for Minot Area Growth through Investment and Cooperation), partnered in those efforts by providing the local share of interest buydowns tied to the project financing.

Programs like PACE and the MAGIC Fund are designed to support primary-sector businesses – companies like AGT Foods that bring new dollars into the local economy by selling products outside the region.

"The support we've received here — from the Minot Area Chamber EDC, from the city, from the state — has been meaningful at every stage of our growth," Bartsch said. "When local and state partners invest in what you're building, it makes a real difference. Minot has shown up for us, and that's not something we take for granted."

The Extrusion Center, which was named the 2024 Economic Development Project of the Year by the Economic Development Association of North Dakota, is already positioning Minot as a leader in value-added agriculture and gluten-free food production. It’s a powerful success story – and a reminder of how economic development can create long-term economic impacts for our region.

To learn more about local incentives to doing business in Minot, such as the MAGIC Fund, click here.