CWB acquires grain-handling business
By Food in Canada magazine staff
Business Operations Grain & Oilseed Milling Canadian Wheat Board grain handlingCWB, once known as the Canadian Wheat Board, has acquired its first grain-handling assets, strengthening its presence in the country and at port
Winnipeg, Man. – The CWB, previously known as the Canadian Wheat Board, is venturing into a new business – grain handling.
The CWB has acquired Mission Terminal, Les Élévateurs des Trois-Rivières, and Services Maritimes Laviolette from Upper Lakes Group Inc. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“CWB has strong long-term relationships and has worked closely with each of the companies we are acquiring,” explained Ian White, president and CEO of CWB.
“We have always respected their solid reputation among prairie farmers and we will continue to value all of the companies doing business with them in the country and at port.”
The acquisition includes port facilities in Thunder Bay, Ont., and Trois-Rivières, Que., as well as a dock services business in Trois-Rivières, reports PembinaValleyOnline.com.
Mission Terminal also owns an elevator at Alexander, Man., and has stakes in several shortline railways, including Boundary Trail Rail Company and Lake Line Railway.
The WinnipegFreePress.com reports that Mission Terminal has storage capacity of 136,500 tonnes and handles approximately 1.5 million tonnes annually from its terminal in Thunder Bay.
The CWB says the acquisitions provide a starting point for a network of grain-handling assets for CWB-marketed grain.
They’re also another critical step in CWB’s strategy to transition towards an operating model independent of the government.
Since the Canadian Wheat Board lost its single-desk monopoly for the marketing of western Canadian wheat and barley in August 2102, says the WinnipegFreePress.com, the CWB has had to make arrangements for third-party access to handling facilities in the country and at shipping ports.
White told the WinnipegFreePress.com that the CWB is looking at other opportunities to build out a grain-handling network.
“The country elevator network owned by Viterra, Richardson, Cargill, Paterson, Parrish and Hiembecker are a pretty solid set of assets that they own and we don’t see those as targets,” White told the WinnipegFreePress.com.
“We are looking at what we can do independently. It will take us time to put that together. There are opportunities in a number of places across the Prairies. We are looking at those.”
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