Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s Cangro Processors feed business is establishing a beachhead in British Columbia with an investment in Agro Pacific Industries Ltd.
Agro Pacific is a feed and pet food manufacturer, and a seed and farm supply operation in British Columbia with annual sales of about $100 million.
Cangro will invest $5 million in new Agro Pacific shares, assuming a one-third ownership in the company, said Agro Pacific president Kevin Conway.
Agro Pacific had been looking for a partner since it transformed itself from a farmer-owned co-op into a shareholder owned corporation about five months ago.
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“Agro Pacific was looking for a company that was going to bring more than straight cash to the table. We were looking for synergies, the potential to grow the business, both in B.C. where we are based, but also into other areas and into new products,” Conway said.
Cangro, formed last year to build Sask Pool’s feed manufacturing business, also operates the pool’s aquaculture holdings on Lake Diefenbaker.
Conway said Agro Pacific grew from East Chilliwack Agricultural Co-op, which started in the fruit industry in 1947, but evolved to serve the dairy industry. In the 1970s it added crop input supply, pet food, aquaculture feed and seed.
Late last year, the board decided to convert the company into a shareholder corporation. After getting the membership’s approval, the company converted members’ equity into shares and has applied for listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Livestock feed is its biggest business. It has marketed its pet foods in rural areas as an adjunct to its livestock feed business, but plans to expand into the urban market by manufacturing for private labels, Conway said.
Graincorp spends for storage
PERTH, Australia (Reuters) – Grains handler Graincorp Ltd. said May 5 it would spend $40 million (Aus) over the next five years to build storage facilities in the Australian state of New South Wales.
The work includes construction of more than 250,000 tonnes of storage facilities, the single biggest expansion in the state’s grain storage facilities since the 1970s, Graincorp said.
The expenditure is in addition to the more than $20 million allocated each year for capital improvements at its facilities, and will particularly be of benefit to growers of canola and barley, Graincorp said
“With an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of production these grains now comprise nearly 25 percent of New South Wales’ total grain production,” said Graincorp chair Garth Martin.
Growth is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, particularly for canola, Martin said.
Fourteen sites have been earmarked for construction of permanent storage development and a further 20 sites have been identified for bunker construction, Graincorp said.
Hamilton elevator ahead
WINNIPEG (Reuters) – Winnipeg-based grain merchandiser James Richardson International said May 5 that construction of its Hamilton, Ont., elevator was ahead of schedule and should be ready for the 1998 wheat crop.
“When completed in late June, this will be the most modern and efficient facility of its kind in Canada,” JRI Hamilton manager Brad Wallaker said. “Thankfully, at this time, it appears that the Ontario wheat crop will be the best since 1995. We will be doing export wheat programs from our port facilities and will be able to provide prompt movement.”
The elevator is on a 5.5 acre marine site at Pier 25.
The facility can receive and ship out grain by truck, rail and vessels and is serviced by CN and CP Rail.
JRI is expanding in Ontario’s grain handling and crop inputs market and has opened two other elevators in addition to the Hamilton facility.
New tracking for interest rates
Saskatoon newsroom
The Western Producer has introduced a new interest rate indicator this week.
We were running the Farm Credit Corp. five-year mortgage rate, but because it rarely changed, it didn’t accurately reflect what was happening in the interest rate market.
The graph to the right indicates the Bank of Canada five-year bond rate. It changes daily and the graphic indicates prices each Monday.
Financial institutions use this rate to help set their mortgage charges. Commercial mortgage interest rates tend to be about two percentage points higher than the Bank of Canada rate.
