OTTAWA – The co-operative sector is booming in Canada, and nowhere more so than in Western Canada, the federal government reported last week.
Last year’s soaring grain prices provided a solid boost for prairie grain handling and selling co-ops, according to the 1995 top 50 list of co-ops produced and published by Agriculture Canada.
The three prairie pools and the companies they own jointly held down five of the top 13 spots on the list.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool maintained its largest co-op designation with revenues of $2.97 billion and assets of more than $1.1 billion. The co-ops secretariat said Sask Pool’s $900 million in increased revenue represented a 42.4 percent improvement.
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Saskatoon-based Federated Co-operatives Ltd. maintained its second place rating, with revenues of $2.1 billion.
High grain prices affected the next two entries on the list.
Xcan Grain Pool Ltd. an export company owned by the three prairie pools, climbed to third place from fourth, with sales of close to $1.8 billion.
Alberta Wheat Pool climbed a notch to fourth place with revenues of $1.5 billion.
Others that rate
Other western co-ops high on the list included: Agrifoods International of British Columbia (6); Manitoba Pool Elevators (8); Calgary Co-op (9); United Farmers of Alberta (11); Lilydale Co-op of Alberta (12); and appearing on the top 50 list for the first time, Western Co-operative Fertilizers Ltd., owned by the three prairie pools (13).
For the first time, seven co-ops had sales and revenues over $1 billion.
Four western co-ops, including Alberta Pool, Agrifoods International and Granny’s Poultry Co-op of Manitoba recorded revenue increases of more than 20 percent.
Across Canada, the 50 largest co-ops increased employees five percent to 34,888 and assets increased to more than $5.5 billion.
