Western Canada’s first certified organic elevator has burned to the ground.
The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool facility in Ernfold, Sask., went up in flames July 12. A volunteer fire fighter from the nearby town of Morse believes an internal combustion explosion in the pit of the elevator ignited the fire.
“It blew the doors off and lifted the roof on the drive-through,” said George Byklum.
Within two hours the facility lay smoldering on the ground. Nobody was hurt in the explosion and resulting fire.
“We were pretty lucky,” said Byklum. “If it would have been dry, we’d have had a hell of a fire with Ernfold.”
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The elevator was being decommissioned and had very little grain stored. The pool has moved its organic business to the bigger and more modern Armour Siding facility north of Regina.
The Ernfold elevator was an older facility slated for closure four years ago. But instead of demolishing it, the pool used it as a test site for handling organic grain. The elevator was certified organic in January 1995.
The company now has an organic division in its Regina head office, employs two people at the Armour Siding facility, has a flour mill in Humboldt that should be 100 percent organic this year, and will be opening another organic elevator at its AgPro facility in Saskatoon next month.
“I don’t know if (the organic business) is lucrative, but I think it’s successful,” said organic merchandiser Brad Speir, who used to run the Ernfold elevator and now works at the pool’s head office.
Speir said the pool offers organic growers advantages that small grain brokers can’t. It cleans and weighs grain, buys producer’s screenings and has the ability to blend grain.
“What we’re able to do is blend some of the lower protein up with some of the higher protein and come out with a sellable product.”
When it comes time to market the grain, the pool can rely on its international reputation.
“It opens more doors,” said Speir.
International markets
The pool has organic buyers in the United States, Europe, Japan and in Canada. Its suppliers come from all three prairie provinces.
“You don’t have a pocket of organic producers just right around the elevator. They’re scattered everywhere. Distance isn’t a real issue,” said Speir.
That’s why Ernfold grower Warren Beach wasn’t upset when the pool moved its business to Regina. He said he will still use the facility for cleaning and may market some of his grain through the pool if the price is right.
Beach, who has been certified organic for 11 years, markets most of his grain through brokers with whom he has a longstanding relationship. But he said most new organic farmers like the idea of delivering to a large company like the pool because there is no risk of default.
Beach said the pool’s entry into organic grain handling and processing has lent more credibility to the industry.
“It kind of flew in the face of what the conventional ideology was about how you make money these days, with high-tech, large mega-projects.”
He expects the company’s commitment to the organic industry to grow.
“I think they’ll probably end up with three or four facilities around the province.”
