Roquette's open house seemed to win over the public last night in Portage la Prairie.

"I think it allowed people to see exactly what this is all about," says RM of Portage Reeve Kam Blight. "They could see first hand for themselves and ask people from Roquette some questions to get a better understanding of things. Speaking with some of the Roquette reps I got to know, they're quite pleased with the turnout ... It's great to see so much enthusiasm and optimism here."

Reeve Kam Blight chatting with people at the open house on Feb. 1, 2017.

The France-based company is set to build a $400-million pea protein extraction plant in the RM of Portage, creating 150 jobs in the process. Pascal Leroy, Vice President of Pea and New Proteins Business Line, says people are really excited, and it showed last night.

"There were a lot of questions from farmers that wanted to learn how we would source peas, yellow peas," says Leroy. "Questions from companies offering their services for construction or other parts of the plans. And from the citizens too. They wanted to know what we're going to do, and what our pea plant is about, and to test some of our products. We had our chef here to serve a lot of the product base of pea proteins. It was a great night."

Pascal Leroy (left) speaking with an individual at the open house on Feb. 1st, 2017.

Winnipeg consulting engineer Ralph Guppy made the trip out to learn more about the plant. "As a consulting engineer I'm here to see what is available in terms of potential work," says Guppy. "I'm with a Winnipeg-based company and (Roquette's people) were a super group. They have a lot of proprietary processes, which is always exciting and interesting to work with. We've done projects like that in other similar areas and it's great engineering work. Very pleased for Portage la Prairie."

Portage MLA Ian Wishart: "It's really good that there's this much community interest in this. I'm not really surprised. When you stop and think about it, it's the biggest announcement in southern Manitoba in a long time. Even when you allow for inflation on dollars, it's a big investment by this company in the Portage la Prairie area. It's not only good for the immediate community but for all of Manitoba and even into Saskatchewan."

A sweet dessert made with pea protein.

Check out more photos from last night's open house below.