AgraCity is a Saskatchewan-based crop input provider that was granted creditor protection by the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench on Dec. 1, 2025.

Jason Anderson, a grain farmer from SexSmith, Alta., is owed $74,000 of product from AgraCity.

He prepaid for herbicides and MicroPhos fertilizer for the 2025 growing season. Some of the product arrived but not all of it.

WHY IT MATTERS: A lot of Prairie farmers have paid for and are owed product — and are also worried about investments they made.

As he was applying the fertilizer that he had received, Anderson was informed that the remaining 60 tonnes would not be coming, so he was forced to make alternative plans.

“With egg on your face, you go begging to your local retailer that you kind of quit dealing with, which really sucked,” he said.

“But they were fantastic and helped me out.”

He had to do the same thing with the herbicides AgraCity shorted him, dipping into his line of credit to finance the duplicate purchases.

Humphrey Banack, a grain farmer from Round Hill, Alta., has purchased a lot of product from the retailer over the years.

A few years ago, he ordered glyphosate from AgraCity that never showed up.

“We kind of swore, ‘we’re not doing that anymore,’ and then we did. We went back to them,” he said.

Banack ordered $21,000 of fungicide from the retailer in the fall of 2024 for the 2025 crop because it was offering by far the best price for the product.

He never received the fungicide and was not offered a refund.

Alternatives

The two Alberta farmers are not alone. Court documents show that 1,228 farmers were owed $32.4 million of product as of June 2025 when the firm’s liquidity problems came to light.

An affidavit filed by AgraCity president Jason Mann claims that customers with orders for approximately $24 million of that total agreed to receive alternative product.

Anderson is one of those customers. He agreed to receive $32,000 of wild oat herbicide, broadleaf herbicide and an herbicide for his pea crop.

AgraCity pushed hard for him to order more product and use up his entire $74,000 credit, but he didn’t want to order product he doesn’t really need.

He is still waiting for the $32,000 of replacement product to arrive. Anderson said he keeps calling his AgraCity sales rep, who repeatedly assures him that the shipment is being organized and will soon be on its way.

Part of the $74,000 he is owed is a $10,000 investment in a glyphosate production facility that never materialized.

“I thought it was a fantastic idea,” he said.

“If they could have got it off the ground, that would have been the greatest thing.”

Anderson has never seen a breakdown of what he is owed, so it is hard to keep track of everything.

“It’s just so frustrating to realize that so much of this turned sideways because of a family feud more so than anything,” he said.

He is referring to a lengthy legal battle between Jason and Jim Mann, brothers who are listed by the court-appointed monitor as directors of the various AgraCity Group of companies.

Banack did not get an offer for replacement product.

He hopes whoever buys AgraCity’s assets will reimburse him what he is owed.

“I go to bed dreaming about it,” he said.

However, when he wakes up, he realizes it is probably unrealistic to expect full compensation from the new owner.

“If you were taking on a business, would you be interested in shipping out ($32.4) million worth of product for nothing?” he said.

“It’s hard for me to expect to have full compensation, but what kind of compensation am I going to get?”

Stalking horse

Banack is also an investor in Genesis Grain and Fertilizer, a fertilizer distribution centre in Belle Plaine, Sask., which is part of the AgraCity Group of companies.

He thinks he invested about $10,000 in that venture. Banack hopes whoever purchases that facility continues to operate it and provides returns to all the farmer investors.

Peter Chisholm, Ernst and Young senior vice-president and court-appointed monitor, said the fate of those farmer investors depends on what happens during the sales process.

“Creditors would have to be paid in full before there would be funds available to any limited partnership unit holders or investors,” he said.

Qualified bidders had an opportunity to submit a non-binding letter of intent to purchase the AgraCity assets by Feb. 6.

The best offers will be selected to participate in phase 2 of the process, where parties will be required to submit binding offers to acquire part or all the business.

The original deadline for that process was Feb. 16, 2025, but it is being extended to a yet-to-be-determined date.

United Farmers of Alberta has been chosen as the stalking horse bidder, agreeing to a base bid of $20 million for the assets, with the right-of-first-refusal to top any winning bid by $2 million.

Anderson thinks UFA would be a good buyer.

“They’re a big enough company and they’ve got a large enough footprint if they could grab ahold of this, I think it could be very successful,” he said.

Banack does not care who ends up with the assets, as long as he and other farmers get paid what they are owed.

“I hope it turns out for everybody and that includes us getting the product we paid for,” he said.

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As per Alberta Farmer’s report last week, Préval confirmed Monday its divisions Westfine Meats and West Excelamb are now the owners of the former SunGold Speciality Meats lamb processing plant at Innisfail, south of Red Deer, and NALCO’s lamb breeding and finishing operations at Iron Springs, north of Lethbridge.

Préval also confirmed Monday the two divisions, which produce and market lamb under the Sungold and Lamb Tonight brands, will now operate as units of its veal and lamb processing arm Montpak International.

NALCO entered creditor protection last summer, owing a total of almost $53 million to lenders Farm Credit Canada and Scotiabank among others. Préval didn’t say Monday how much it paid for the Alberta assets, a figure previously sealed by court order at the request of the court-appointed monitor.

The monitor, Ernst and Young (EY), reached purchase and sale agreements with Préval for the Alberta assets in November and picked up approval for those deals last month from Alberta Court of King’s Bench in Calgary.

The deal creates some certainty for lamb producers in Western Canada by ensuring the continued operation of the region’s only federally inspected lamb processing plant.

“We are fortunate to be acquiring world-class operations that will deliver the same high standard of quality on which Préval Ag has built its reputation,” Montpak CEO Alex Fontaine said in a release Monday.

“For us, sourcing locally is essential, and we will therefore be working closely with local producers to expand the marketing of our lamb products in the Canadian market.”

Préval also announced the appointment of Stéphane Beausoleil as general manager for the Alberta operartion, tasked with “integrating the new company into the Préval Ag family.”

Beausoleil will also be working with the plant team “to promote the quality of Canadian lamb products under the Sungold, Lamb Tonight and Famille Fontaine brands.”

Préval, based at St-Hyacinthe, Que., operates 42 subsidiaries, including veal, beef and lamb processing divisions Montpak and Délimax, plus other crop and horticulture production and processing units.

With the NALCO deal in place, Préval said its units’ total annual sales are projected to reach over $750 million and its employee base over 1,600 people in Canada, the U.S. and South America.

Court of King’s Bench in December also approved the sales of NALCO’s four properties in Manitoba to three separate buyers.

ABAS Girls Ranch will take over the NALCO properties at Rockwood, Stony Mountain and Lundar, while 2 Flag Farms and Sheldon Harms will take up separate portions of the company’s land at Sarto. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Judge Shawn Smith of Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon on Friday approved the sale of Morris to a numbered-company arm of Superior Farms Solutions Ltd. (SFSL), the operator of Rite Way Manufacturing. The numbered company will operate as “Morris Equipment.”

The deal will see Morris’ Saskatoon head office, its Minnedosa, Man. manufacturing plant and its patents and related intellectual property go to Rite Way. The deal’s financial terms and dollar amounts are redacted in court documents posted online.

Rite Way and Morris’ court-appointed monitor have agreed to target a closing date of Dec. 31 for the deal.

In its report to the court on Dec. 11, Alvarez and Marsal, the monitor for Morris, described the deal as “the culmination of all of the efforts and resources expended by Morris Group and its stakeholders over the course of the last 12 months.”

If approved and completed, the monitor said, the deal “will preserve the core components of the 90-year-old farm equipment manufacturing enterprise carried on by Morris Group (and its predecessors) continuously from the 1920s until the present date.”

However, in its “exhaustive sale process” to find an investor or buyer for Morris, “no party had expressed to the monitor an intention to purchase, acquire or operate the Yorkton plant,” the monitor said.

The deal as reached means the Yorkton plant will close down when the deal is completed, officially putting the plant’s 20 remaining employees and another 50 laid-off employees out of work.

Without a letter of understanding, as was reached earlier this year between the company and the Yorkton plant’s union, the plant’s collective bargaining agreement would have required any buyer to “take on a degree of labour relations risk for their existing business operations” even if it didn’t buy the Yorkton facility.

The Yorkton plant’s workers, members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 955, approved the terms of the letter in August in a vote at an open-air meeting at a Yorkton baseball diamond.

The exact contents of the letter were kept confidential in the monitor’s Dec. 11 report. It calls for creation of a fund to manage payments to Yorkton plant employees “whose employment is anticipated to be terminated.”

The importance of the letter of understanding to the deal “on which the survival of this business enterprise is based cannot be overstated,” Alvarez and Marsal wrote in its report.

BMO, which as Morris’ principal secured creditor is owed about $25 million, has said it supports the proposed sale but also now plans to file for an application-for-bankruptcy order against Morris Group, likely to be heard in court next month.

A bankruptcy would see the employment terminated for Morris’ Saskatoon and Minnedosa staff but, as the monitor’s report puts it, “reasonable prospects exist” for those staff to get employment with the new owner.

Operating in creditor protection since January this year, Morris’ businesses include manufacturing air carts, drills, seeders, harrow bars and bale carriers.

Founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, the company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007, when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control in 2017.

Morris has operated a plant at Yorkton since 1949 and at Minnedosa since 1960, and went on to expand both plants several times. A company-owned dealership and service centre at Virden, Man. closed earlier this year.

Rite Way, founded by Regina machine shop owner Les Hulicsko, is today headquartered in Regina but has its main plant at Imperial, Sask., about 130 km north of the city. Hulicsko, who began building rock pickers in 1972, sold the business in 2012.

Apart from rock pickers and rock windrowers, Rite Way’s product lines today include land rollers, heavy harrows, rotary harrows, crimper rollers, bale carts, grapples and high-speed compact discs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Calgary consultancy Alvarez and Marsal, the court-appointed monitor for Morris, said Tuesday in its latest report to Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon it recommends approval of a sale and vesting order, clearing the way for Morris’ sale to Superior Farms Solutions Ltd. (SFSL), the operator of Rite Way Manufacturing.

The report also recommends Morris’ creditor protection, which has been in place since Jan. 8 with several extensions and otherwise expires Friday, be extended again to Nov. 30.

Alvarez and Marsal said it expects the “transactions contemplated” in the proposed deal to close on or before Nov. 15, and has “continued to work towards satisfying the remaining conditions” of asset purchase agreements (APAs) with SFSL for Morris.

The monitor said it believes it’s appropriate to seek a sale and vesting order now, since it’s working to address those outstanding conditions on or before Friday (Sept. 18). The APAs, it noted, have the approval of BMO, Morris’ largest secured creditor.

The APAs, Alvarez and Marsal said, “represent the highest and best offer received for the assets” of Morris, and a deal with Rite Way “would be more beneficial to (Morris’) creditors than a sale or disposition under a bankruptcy given the offers previously received.”

Remaining conditions for a deal include SFSL reaching an acceptable financing arrangement with its lender — and for Morris to negotiate an “acceptable arrangement” with the union representing employees at its Yorkton, Sask. manufacturing plant.

On the latter, Alvarez and Marsal said a letter of understanding between Morris and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 955 was drafted and submitted to union members. The membership then approved the terms of the letter on Aug. 26 in a vote at an open-air meeting at a Yorkton baseball diamond.

That letter proposes setting up a fund to manage payments to an unspecified number of Yorkton plant employees “whose employment is anticipated to be terminated” once the sale closes.

Further details weren’t available; the monitor has also asked Queen’s Bench to place the letter under confidential seal along with the proposed APAs.

Apart from its plant at Yorkton, Morris also has a plant at Minnedosa, Man. The Saskatoon-based company’s businesses include manufacturing air carts, drills, seeders, harrow bars and bale carriers.

Founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, the company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007, when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control in 2017.

Apart from BMO, Morris’ secured creditors include Avrio, Kubota Canada, Wells Fargo and the financing arm of fabricating equipment maker Trumpf, among others. Unsecured creditors include Western Economic Diversification Canada and various trade vendors.

Rite Way, founded by Regina machine shop owner Les Hulicsko, is today headquartered in Regina but has its main plant at Imperial, Sask., about 130 km north of the city. Hulicsko, who began building rock pickers in 1972, sold the business in 2012.

Apart from rock pickers and rock windrowers, Rite Way’s product lines today include land rollers, heavy harrows, rotary harrows, crimper rollers, bale carts, grapples and high-speed compact discs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Calgary consultancy Alvarez and Marsal said in a report Tuesday it received a letter of intent for a “proposed sale transaction” from Superior Farms Solutions Ltd. (SFSL), the operator of Rite Way Manufacturing.

Alvarez and Marsal, the court-appointed creditor protection monitor for Morris, said it had worked in “extensive negotiations” with SFSL — and with the support of BMO, Morris’ largest secured creditor — to execute the letter of intent last Friday.

Details of the Rite Way proposal aren’t available. An order, to be submitted for approval Friday at Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon, has been drafted requiring that the letter of intent be sealed as confidential for now.

The draft order would also extend Saskatoon-based Morris’ creditor protection to July 3. The company has been in creditor protection since Jan. 8 and has since been granted three extensions, the most recent of which is due to expire Friday.

Alvarez and Marsal, in asking that the letter be sealed, said disclosing information about the Rite Way proposal “could potentially jeopardize the Monitor’s efforts to attract future offers” for Morris’ assets.

The monitor had got court approval on Jan. 16 for a “sales and investment solicitation process” for Morris — but it said in its May 6 report that the process hadn’t led to an “acceptable offer.” It then went back to talk to parties that had shown “continued willingness” for a deal.

Though the Rite Way letter of intent is non-binding, the monitor said it’s of the view that reaching a deal by June 19, with a target closing date of June 30, “appears to be achievable.”

Rite Way, founded by Regina machine shop owner Les Hulicsko, is today headquartered in Regina but has its main plant at Imperial, Sask., about 130 km north of the city. Hulicsko, who began building rock pickers in 1972, sold the business in 2012.

Apart from rock pickers and rock windrowers, the company’s product lines today include land rollers, heavy harrows, rotary harrows, crimper rollers, bale carts, grapples and high-speed compact discs.

Saskatoon-based Morris, founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, today has plants at Yorkton, Sask. and Minnedosa, Man., making air carts, drills, seeders, harrow bars and bale carriers.

The company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007 when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control of Morris in 2017.

Apart from BMO, Morris’ secured creditors include Avrio, Kubota Canada, Wells Fargo and the financing arm of fabricating equipment maker Trumpf, among others. Unsecured creditors include Western Economic Diversification Canada and various trade vendors.

A company-owned sales and service centre at Virden, Man. was shut down in mid-March and some “redundant assets” of that business were sold to auctioneer Ritchie Bros. to be included in a March 31 sale.

Other assets and inventory from the Morris Sales and Service site at Virden are expected to either be sold or relocated to Morris Industries sites by the end of this month, Alvarez and Marsal said in its report. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon on Wednesday approved the Morris Group’s Jan. 3 application, which stays any proceedings or actions against the company until Jan. 18 at the earliest.

Saskatoon-based Morris, founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, today has plants at Yorkton, Sask. and Minnedosa, Man., and makes equipment including seeders, drills, air carts, packer harrow bars and bale carriers.

The company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007 when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control of Morris in 2017.

Morris’ secured creditors include BMO, Avrio, Kubota Canada, Wells Fargo and the financing arm of fabricating equipment maker Trumpf, among others. Unsecured creditors include Western Economic Diversification Canada and various trade vendors.

Morris, which sells through dealer networks in Canada, the U.S., Australia and Eastern Europe, pointed in its Jan. 3 application to “significant losses” in recent years due to “the unfortunate combination of multiple factors.”

Listed first among those factors were rising overhead and production costs from expanding the business and introducing both its proprietary new ShieldCore welding technology and, in 2018, a new product line, the Quantum Air Drill.

On its launch, the Quantum was a success for Morris in Canada and abroad, particularly in Australia, which typically accounts for about 30 per cent of the company’s sales, according to Morris chief operating officer Kevin Adair in a Jan. 3 affidavit.

However, the Quantum’s drill openers developed problems, which in North America were dealt with through an upgrade program. But in Australia — where the units come under more wear and tear due to heat, dryness and soil conditions and a longer growing season — the problems called for changes to the design and “complete replacement” of the drill openers.

Given that drill openers make up about 40 per cent of the air drill’s unit cost, the resulting warranty issues called for “a significant capital investment far beyond any foreseeable estimates,” the company said.

On top of the Quantum issues, China’s ban on Canadian canola seed imports and “inclement weather conditions in successive crop years” cut into Morris’ sales in Western Canada, while the 2018 tariff fight between the U.S. and Canada led to added raw material costs, Adair said.

Furthermore, he said, up against lower revenues and greater debt, the company in 2019 lost access to a “factoring” facility previously provided by National Bank of Canada.

Losing that credit facility — which previously allowed Morris to improve its cash flow through early access to insured receivables in Australia — keeps the company from getting at about $10.8 million in receivables until late April this year.

With limited demand for new machinery, Adair said, Morris is also faced with “significant inventory” of completed equipment, work in progress and raw materials. It also has “floor planning” arrangements with its dealers, in which the company takes on a portion of the dealerships’ carrying costs.

Morris started short-term cost-cutting in September 2019, including “partial shutdowns” at Yorkton and Minnedosa as well as salary cuts and work-share programs, he added.

As of now, he said, the company’s restructuring strategy may also include, among other options:

• consolidating manufacturing into a single plant and selling off other facilities and equipment;
• auctioning off “older-generation” products and shuffling inventory between dealerships to cut its floor-planning costs;
• relocating to a smaller head office and/or cutting head office and support staff positions;
• winding down a company-owned equipment dealership at Virden, Man.; and/or
• working with its secured creditors and its court-appointed monitor, Alvarez and Marsal Canada, on a “sale and investor solicitation process.”

As of Jan. 3, Adair said, the Morris Group has 134 employees, and “further reductions” to its workforce will be necessary.

However, he said, given “time and interim financing,” the company believes it can “weather the present difficulties” and rehire laid-off staff when production resumes. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The CGC announced Monday that 222 eligible unpaid growers will receive a total of $11.146 million covered by the security ILTA posted before it was put under creditor protection last July.

Payments have been issued and will be delivered “in the coming days,” under the commission’s Safeguards for Grain Farmers Program.

Under the program, CGC-licensed grain companies have to tender security for outstanding grain liabilities in the form of either a bond, letter of credit, letter of guarantee or payables insurance. If a licensed company defaults on paying farmers, the CGC uses the security to compensate those eligible.

Producers must submit claims for compensation within 90 days of delivery or within 30 days from the date the cash purchase ticket or cheque was issued, whichever is less.

Following ILTA’s default, the CGC assessed 271 producer claims, which the commission noted was “the largest number ever received against a company’s security.”

ILTA’s default also represents the largest total security payout in CGC history, the commission said — although not all affected producers who made claims are eligible for payment in this case.

That’s partly because some farmers were owed money for canary seed deliveries, which aren’t regulated under the Canada Grain Act. That group includes 44 farmers, who are still owed about $2.1 million.

Other ineligible producers had amounts outstanding for deliveries made outside the program eligibility period, the CGC said. Those producers and the canary seed growers will be left to seek whatever assets are left available for ILTA’s unsecured creditors. The company’s primary secured creditors include HSBC and Farm Credit Canada.

“The ILTA Grain Inc. situation has been a difficult one for everyone involved, and we are very pleased to be able to deliver over $11 million in payments to producers who were owed money,” CGC chief commissioner Patti Miller said in Monday’s release.

Having suspended ILTA’s licenses in July, the CGC in August allowed ILTA to operate its primary elevators at Saskatoon and Belle Plaine, Sask. and to carry on business as a grain dealer “under specific conditions.”

Among those conditions, ILTA wasn’t allowed to buy or receive grain from producers, but was able to ship out remaining stocks of grain, a task it completed in mid-October.

For producers who had delivered grain into ILTA’s stocks but hadn’t received documentation, the CGC negotiated the setup of an escrow account worth about $3 million, above and beyond ILTA’s payables insurance policy.

Atradius, the insurance company covering ILTA’s payables, wired $11.146 million to the CGC on Dec. 27 to cover the eligible claims — including claims by producers who had delivered to ILTA but didn’t receive documentation.

HSBC, as a secured creditor, has a hearing scheduled at the Supreme Court of B.C. in Vancouver on Thursday and Friday this week. According to PwC Canada, which is serving as ILTA’s court-appointed monitor, HSBC is seeking an order to get $11 million PwC has been holding in trust pending the outcome of the CGC claims process, plus the money in the escrow account.

‘Could not pay’

The CGC said Monday it generally recommends producers limit their risk of financial loss by requesting payment for each load at time of delivery. Past that, producers who see delays in being paid for grain should contact the CGC “immediately.”

But according to Atradius in court documents it filed Dec. 30, it had been ILTA’s practice to mail out elevator and grain receipts and cash purchase tickets after the fact, historically within a week of receiving grain.

However, according to Atradius, as ILTA “began to experience liquidity issues… this delay grew to as much as 28 days.

“In other words, despite its liquidity issues, ILTA continued acquiring grain from producers at a time when it could not pay for it (and) did not pay the producers for their grain, and in fact delayed payment to the producers.”

Atradius will be in court this week disputing HSBC’s claim to the money from the sales of grain ILTA had on hand. The insurer in this case will be the “subrogee” for the farmers to whom it has already paid out on its policy via the CGC, which means it “steps into the shoes of the producers who are precluded from double recovery.”

In its Dec. 30 response to HSBC’s application, Atradius contends that ILTA “failed to issue valid (cash purchase tickets) and therefore did not acquire title to (the unpaid producers’) grain.”

‘Challenging conditions’

ILTA was formed in Surrey in 2011 by former managers of specialty crop export firm Finora, after that company’s owner, Noble Group, sold Finora and its four plants in Saskatchewan and Alberta to AGT in 2009.

According to an affidavit last July, the company, which deals mainly in pulse crops, faced “increasingly challenging international trade conditions” in recent years affecting its business in export markets including India, China and Saudi Arabia.

Since it entered creditor protection, ILTA’s crop handling and processing facilities have been sold off to assorted buyers, starting with Viterra, which bought the ILTA pulse facility at Belle Plaine, Sask. in August.

In November, court approvals were granted for the sale of ILTA’s processing plant at Saskatoon to containerized crop handling firm DG Global, and for four other Saskatchewan sites — two at North Battleford and one each at Swift Current and Cut Knife — to be sold to an arm of trading firm ETG Commodities. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Les Serres Lefort, which operates almost 50 acres of greenhouse facilities at Sainte-Clotilde in Quebec’s Monteregie, announced Sept. 10 it had filed a notice of intention on Sept. 6 to file a proposal with Quebec’s Superior Court.

The filing of the notice of intention effectively stays any proceedings against the Lefort business, pending court approval of its proposal.

Documents posted by bankruptcy trustee Raymond Chabot lay out about $44.68 million in debts owed to three secured and 148 unsecured creditors — the secured creditors being financial co-operative Desjardins ($31.68 million), provincial business development lender Investissement Quebec ($6.9 million) and RBC Banque Royale ($1,911).

Reasons for the company’s filing weren’t given in the documents available online, but company president Sylvain Lefort was quoted Tuesday in La Terre de chez nous, the news arm of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), as saying the company’s returns from organic vegetable production fell short of its targets.

Lefort also told the newspaper he was in the midst of negotiations to ensure the company’s operations would continue.

La Terre also quoted Claude Laniel, president of Quebec greenhouse grower group Producteurs en serre du Quebec, as being concerned that whatever new investors or owners take over the business might set aside Lefort’s organic expansion plans in lieu of restoring profitability in the shorter term.

Television network TVA, in a separate report Monday, said it had information tying the company’s financial troubles to production problems and cost overruns in Lefort’s organic cucumber and bell pepper business.

Les Serres Lefort, in business since 1984, produces an estimated 65 per cent of Quebec’s plant grafts for crop propagation, and grows greenhouse lettuce sold under the Mirabel brand. In 2013 it began marketing vegetables, including organics, under the VOG and VOG BIO brands.

The company in 2016 announced a $27 million investment to add almost 20 acres of new greenhouse space at Sainte-Clotilde, an expansion it said would make it one of the largest producers of organic greenhouse vegetables in North America.

The company said at the time it expected to produce over 500,000 cases of organic cucumbers annually on a year-round basis, plus over 250,000 cases of bell peppers in a March-to-December growing season each year.

“It’s time that we stopped watching our out-of-province competitors and that we use our own resources and expertise to develop our industry,” Sylvain Lefort said in a release at the time. “This is the beginning of a great adventure that will hopefully snowball in an industry that deserves to grow.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Glencore Agriculture’s Viterra arm said Tuesday it has signed a purchase deal for the assets of ILTA’s processing facility at Belle Plaine, Sask., about 25 km east of Moose Jaw. Financial terms of the deal weren’t released.

The deal is expected to close Aug. 27, subject to the usual closing conditions as well as approval from the Supreme Court of British Columbia. That approval will be sought at a hearing Friday, Viterra said.

Surrey, B.C.-based ILTA started building the Belle Plaine plant in 2015, describing the site as “the heart of a major specialty grain production area and well positioned from a transportation perspective.”

Completed in 2017, the facility is connected to Canadian Pacific Railway’s mainline, with a 135-railcar loop track and storage capacity of 22,000 tonnes.

According to ILTA’s court-appointed monitor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the site has capacity to process about 350,000 tonnes of crops per year.

Regina-based Viterra on Tuesday said the site “can handle a wide range of pulses and other commodities, and provides added value through precision cleaning and conveyor equipment to prepare and ship crops for export.”

The Belle Plaine operation, built on 350 acres, also has “multiple logistics capabilities including container, bagged, intermodal, truck and bulk rail shipments,” Viterra said.

“We firmly believe that our operational and logistical expertise, combined with our focus on superior service and unrivalled market insight, will allow us to bring this facility to its full potential for the benefit of our customers,” Kyle Jeworski, Viterra’s CEO for North America, said in Tuesday’s release.

Viterra’s facilities nearest to Belle Plaine include an elevator just west of Moose Jaw and a dedicated mustard plant in that city.

‘Broader process’

ILTA entered creditor protection on July 8, citing falling revenue due to “increasingly challenging international trade conditions,” as customer countries such as India, China and Saudi Arabia limited or halted imports from Canada.

PwC, in its Aug. 1 report to the court, said it had been working with a party which, prior to ILTA’s creditor protection filing, submitted a letter of intent to buy the Belle Plaine site. The report didn’t mention Viterra by name.

PwC’s report said the plan was to either “meaningfully advance” a deal with that buyer for the Belle Plaine site or add it to the “broader sales process” for ILTA’s five other plants.

Ontario-based Hensall District Co-op in January closed a deal to buy ILTA’s plant at Bloom, Man., about 15 km west of Portage la Prairie. Hensall later said it would also exercise its previously agreed-upon option to buy ILTA’s receiving station at Miami, Man., about 85 km south of Bloom.

That deal closed July 24, after ILTA’s secured lenders confirmed they had no interest in the Miami site, PwC said.

Interest from potential buyers in deals for ILTA’s other assets “has unfolded in a positive manner,” PwC said in the Aug. 1 report, noting plans for a “non-binding bid deadline” of Aug. 26. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The CGC late Wednesday announced it has reached an agreement with the company’s court-appointed monitor for a new escrow account, “into which funds will be placed that relate to grain deliveries for which no cheques have been issued.”

That fund is to be held by the monitor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), “until it has been determined how the funds will be distributed,” the CGC said in a release.

The commission said Wednesday it has heard from “more than 200” farmers as it completes its audit of the number of farmers to whom ILTA owes money for grain, and the total amount of those claims.

In negotiating to set up the escrow account, the commission said it agreed to reinstate B.C.-based ILTA’s grain dealer and primary elevator licences effective Wednesday. Those licences had been suspended on July 11.

One of the “key conditions” of the agreement, according to CGC chief commissioner Patti Miller, prevents ILTA from buying or receiving more grain from farmers or otherwise incurring liabilities to grain growers.

However, ILTA “may sell, remove or otherwise transfer grain or grain products held or stored at its facilities.”

In its Aug. 1 report to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, PwC said the company lists about $24 million in inventory out of about $224 million in assets such as its buildings and equipment.

ILTA owed about $152 million to creditors, including about $14 million to farmers, as of July 8, the date it got court approval for creditor protection.

CGC-licensed grain companies must tender security for outstanding grain liabilities, either as a bond, letter of credit, letter of guarantee, cash deposit, trust account or payables insurance.

ILTA’s licenses required it to provide security of $12 million against what it owes to farmers, which PwC said are covered under an insurance policy with the Canadian arm of Atradius, the Dutch trade credit insurance firm. Atradius had filed a notice of cancellation of that policy on July 9 but has since agreed to reinstate it, PwC said.

Furthermore, PwC said, it had been informed July 19 that the CGC identified elevator receipts worth about $2.9 million for which producers hadn’t been paid as of July 8.

PwC, in its Aug. 1 report, said it understands that HSBC Canada — one of ILTA’s secured creditors — and the CGC “may have different views as to the entitlements to the grain,” hence the negotiations which led to the setup of the new escrow account.

The CGC said Wednesday it will contact “any producers who have reported payment issues” and will send claim forms to those producers to sign and return “as soon as possible,” once it confirms their contact information.

Also, the CGC said, any farmers who haven’t yet contacted the commission, but who delivered to ILTA before July 11 and haven’t received payment should “immediately” contact the commission at 1-800-853-6705.

In cases where a CGC-licensed company doesn’t meet its payment obligations, the commission uses the company’s security to compensate eligible farmers, the CGC said, but emphasized that the Canada Grain Act “does not guarantee full payment in the event that a licensed company fails.”

“We have taken several steps to protect the rights of producers who have delivered to ILTA Grain Inc. including visits by our auditors and inspectors to obtain information and documentation, starting the claims process, and negotiating an escrow agreement,” Miller said in Wednesday’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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