ROSETOWN, Sask. – A group of Saskatchewan farmers plan to bypass grain companies and market their own specialty crops from their own processing plant.
“Lots of farmers own their own plant, but before this none owned the marketing company,” said Roy Bailey, chair of Eagle Creek Processing.
“The whole world is talking about this plant and this system,” said Bailey, a farmer from Milden, Sask.
The idea for a farmer-owned plant and com-
pany was just a thought three years ago when Bailey was on a trade mission in Paris with Winnipeg commodity trader Brian Crane.
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“We talked about the concept of producer-owned company with a marketing company,” said Bailey.
It wasn’t until this year when a business plan was developed that the idea took off. Once the plan was finalized it took only one week to sell the company shares. The group emphasizes the company is debt-free and there is no government money involved.
“It wasn’t a general offer (of shares),” said Ian McPhadden of Milden, a shareholder and director.
“We wanted people who were business-minded in their operation,” added Bailey.
At $1 a share, each of the approximately 20 shareholders own a varying number of shares. Unlike many of the terminals popping up across the Prairies, the facility isn’t associated with a major grain company.
“The trouble with working for pools or Cargill is they rule the roost. They tell you when you can clean,” said Bailey.
The processing company will compete with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Cargill when it sells lentils, peas, canary seed or mustard.
“It will make it a very competitive area,” said Bailey.
The seed will mainly come from a 160-kilometre radius of Rosetown, Sask., but the company hopes to have buyers in other provinces.
Future expansion
At first it will mainly do bagging and cleaning of specialty crops, but could expand to further processing.
The shareholders also own Cancom Grain Company Inc., the marketing arm of a processing plant in Winnipeg. It’s here that Crane, who had worked for Pioneer Grain, will use his expertise to find markets for the company’s specialty crops.
With the end of the Western Grain Transportation Act and a growing interest in special crops, the plant is part of an evolution from on-farm cleaning of specialty crops to a more efficient high through-put plant on a rail line, said McPhadden.
Construction of the 200,000 bu. storage facility began at the end of April and it should be running by fall, said co-manager Lanny Stevens, who previously worked for Cargill.
Eagle Creek estimates it will be able to process 3,000 bushels per hour and eventually put through 140,000 tonnes a year.
