news briefs
grain marketing
BRANDON — CWB is having no trouble finding potential investors to buy at least part of the former monopoly.
A wide array of players would like to get their hands on more prairie grain, says a senior executive.
“There are a lot of companies that either want to expand in their origination capacity or don’t have origination capacity at all in Western Canada, and that is one of the things that we bring into this environment,” said Gord Flaten, CWB vice-president for grain procurement.
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CWB doesn’t own elevators, terminals or grain handling assets other than Great Lakes ships, but its network of relationships with the rest of the industry and thousands of farmers gives it value.
“That is one of the things that we bring into this environment is we’ve got the relationship with farmers and a fair amount of knowledge about how the system works and where the opportunities are,” said Flaten.
“That makes quite an attractive partner to number of investors.”
Flaten said domestic grain companies and foreign investors who want to have a piece of the prairie grain business have expressed interest in owning at least part of CWB.
CWB is owned by the federal government but must eventually become privately owned after the transitional period ends.
