WINNIPEG – Alexandr Podo-bedov has 18 oilseed crushing plants and could be processing 300,000 tonnes a year.
One problem: His business is in Russia. Until more oilseeds are produced there, he doesn’t have enough supply to keep his plants going year-round.
“It looks like not a bad car, but it’s without gasoline,” Podobedov said through a translator in a recent meeting with Dale Adolphe of XCAN Grain Pool.
Podobedov wants to buy 40,000 tonnes of oilseeds from Canada this year for his plant in Assoy.
He was considering soybeans until he met Glenn Flaten, a farmer and consulting agrologist who convinced him to take a look at canola.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Flaten brought him on a 10-day tour of the Prairies, that included other directors of Podobedov’s company and Russian government representatives, to find out how Canadians grow and use the crop.
“What we’re trying to do in this tour is give them an overview of Canadian agriculture, to have a look at the areas where there may be some future reciprocal agreements and arrangements for technology transfer,” Flaten explained.
“I guess we’re looking at it from an optimistic point of view, that down the road some business might develop from it … it’s an investment by us for Canada, I guess, and hopefully for ourselves.”
Bus tour through Prairies
The group travelled by bus through Saskatchewan and Manitoba before visiting Winnipeg and stopped at poultry, beef and hog farms, strawberry and vegetable farms, a Hutterite colony and, of course, grain farms.
They also visited the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, the Gardiner Dam, an equipment dealership and plant, alfalfa dehydrating and ethanol plants.
Flaten said the group was impressed with zero-till equipment but was a bit flummoxed by the way grain is marketed.
“It has been very interesting, very important for me because … I have seen very real agriculture,” Podo-bedov said. “There is a very industrial agriculture system in Canada; very good technology, very good sorts of crops … and a very good system of support to farmers.”
When they met with representatives of XCAN and the Canola Council of Canada, the delegates were ready to hear more about supply, demand and prices.
Podobedov wanted to know why canola is more expensive than soybeans, whether canola meal is better than soymeal, and the difference between canola and rapeseed.
But the politics of trade with Russia kept creeping into the conversation. Because of the country’s bad credit rating and debt to the Canadian government, it seems unlikely a sale could be made without extensive guarantees.
At XCAN, Adolphe promised the group that he would check into available credit and fax Podobedov specific questions about how much canola he needs. Adolphe said he could then quote the company a firm price.
“We’ll see if it hopefully leads to something,” Adolphe said.
Flaten said credit arrangements would likely be a hurdle for the Russian company, but he hopes the Canadian grain trade has “a longer-term view” of exploring business opportunities with Russia.
