Canterra Seeds announced May 1 it has acquired Alliance Seed for an undisclosed amount, and will continue to operate Alliance as “a standalone brand under Canterra Seeds’ umbrella, with key staff transitioning to maintain continuity and customer relationships.”

Alliance, headquartered in Winnipeg, dates back to 2009, when it formed as a joint venture between two privately held Winnipeg grain and agrifood firms (Paterson Grain, Parrish and Heimbecker) and four Saskatchewan grain terminal firms (North West Terminal, Weyburn Inland Terminal, Prairie West Terminal, Great Sandhills Terminal).

Paterson announced in December 2023 it had bought P&H’s share for an undisclosed amount. North West Terminal — the only other company still holding a share of Alliance at that time — later reported it had sold its stake in November 2024 for $8,300.

Alliance’s roster of seed varieties includes five varieties of Canada Western Red Spring wheat, one Canada Western Red Winter wheat, three durums, two Canada Prairie Spring Red wheats, three pea varieties, three barley varieties and two oat varieties.

Canterra, in a release May 1, described the deal as a “strategic acquisition” that supports its goal of “expanding its footprint in the pedigreed seed market by bringing high-performing, proven varieties such as CDC Endure milling oats and AAC Leroy VB CWRS wheat to more farmers across Western Canada.”

Alliance “has built an impressive portfolio and a network supported by committed seed growers,” Canterra CEO Brent Derkatch said in the release. “With our experience, we’re confident we can build on this strong foundation, help the brand grow, and offer even more value to Canadian farmers.”

Shane Paterson, director of trading and transportation for Paterson Grain and the former president of Alliance, said in the same release that as Paterson “looked for the right successor, it was important to find someone who aligned with Alliance Seed’s culture and commitment to personalized service.”

Paterson, he said, “look(s) forward to continuing our support through our retail network.”

Formed in 1996 by a group of Prairie seed growers, Winnipeg-based Canterra’s stakeholders today include about 175 seed growers, ag retailers and other private investors.

Among those are French farmer co-operative Limagrain, which bought its stake when it set up a wheat breeding joint venture with Canterra in 2015, and United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), which bought a 17 per cent share of Canterra from Ceres Global Ag Corp. for $2.5 million in July last year.

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“P&H has been a great equity partner and a strong supporter of seed genetics in Canada, and we thank them for their many contributions to Alliance and the industry,” said Shane Paterson, director of trading and transportation at Paterson in a news release.

Winnipeg-based Alliance Seed began in 2009 as a joint venture between Paterson Grain (a division of Paterson GlobalFoods), Parrish and Heimbecker, Weyburn Inland Terminal of Weyburn, Sask.; North West Terminal (NWT) of Unity, Sask.; Prairie West Terminal of Plenty, Sask.; and Great Sandhills Terminal at Leader, Sask.

With the recent sale, North West Terminal and Paterson are the two remaining shareholders.

“The joint venture, established in 2009, has proven to be mutually beneficial, creating synergies
that have contributed to the success of all shareholders. P&H looks forward to continuing on as a
channel partner with Alliance.” said Anthony Kulbacki, president of P&H’s grain division.

Alliance operations will not change as a result of this transaction, the news release said.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

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“All of the members of the Western Grain Elevator Association are doing everything in their power to keep the grain supply chain functioning” during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Wade Sobkowich said Tuesday.

“That means we’ll continue to take farmer deliveries, but there will be some differences when the farmer delivers to the country elevators in how he or she interacts with the elevator staff.”

When you arrive at the elevator to deliver grain, you may be asked to stay inside your vehicle if you’re feeling ill or if you’ve been in contact with someone who is sick. Some elevators might ask you to stay inside your vehicle, regardless of how you’re feeling.

Either way, farmers should avoid entering the receiving office, said Sobkowich. Many elevators are operating with a skeleton crew right now and others have put procedures in place to ensure workers maintain the proper distance from each other.

“That keeps employees at safe distances from each other, and it also allows workers to be kept in the wings in case somebody falls ill and they need to be replaced by another worker who is trained and skilled at that particular function,” he said.

Any load receipts, he said, would be brought out to the truck.

“Those types of procedures are being implemented throughout the grain supply chain in order to keep people safe and to keep grain flowing,” said Sobkowich, adding each elevator’s protocols might differ slightly.

“Each company is taking a look at it and trying to implement procedures, but it’s fluid. It’s evolving over time as we learn more and as circumstances change.”

Parrish and Heimbecker, for example, said last week it would be “limiting the amount of customers at our location(s)” and asking farmers making deliveries to remain in their trucks wherever possible. Effective Monday it added a “locked-door policy” for its elevator offices.

The company’s locations are still operating, but grain cheques are now being put in the mail daily and farmers visiting P+H locations are now asked to call ahead to discuss methods to deliver grain, make payments or pick up or drop off seed or inputs.

Cargill’s Prairie grain elevators and ag retail sites are still open, but the offices at those sites are closed to walk-in traffic and farmers are asked to call ahead to co-ordinate deliveries and pickups.

Paterson Grain elevators are also still open but staff are “eliminating all but the most critical face-to-face meetings with customers,” CEO Andrew Paterson said on the company’s website.

Changes in company policy may cause delays when delivering grain, but so far things are going smoothly, Sobkowich said.

“I haven’t heard of any delays yet,” he said. “In the month of March, we’ve been moving a lot of grain trying to recover from the blockades, but that’s not to say there haven’t been delays when it comes to producer deliveries.”

That could change if supply chain workers are forced to stay at home, he added.

“If there is a place where the grain supply chain is going to start to show delays, it’s going to be workers refusing to come to work,” he said.

“The government has been making it known that it wants people to stay at home — but it needs to be clear that the grain supply chain is critical. It’s very important that the language coming out of the provincial governments and the federal government be clear that, if grain is essential, these workers need to work with these new safety protocols that are being implemented.

“We’re operating on the basis that we are essential and that, when the government tells the people to stay at home, they’re not talking about critical people in the supply chain.”

— Jennifer Blair reports for Alberta Farmer from Sylvan Lake. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Calls to 9-1-1 started coming in at 5:48 a.m. Tuesday, according to Jason Gizen, a local volunteer firefighter and pedigreed seed grower.

Gizen lives in the house closest to the elevator and has a seed cleaning plant beside it — but the fire itself wasn’t what initially woke his family.

“My wife could hear a lot of vehicles” and then realized the phone, which had been switched off for the night, was ringing, Gizen said.

A tense day followed for residents. The village, about 140 km northwest of Swift Current, was evacuated as a precaution.

“There were some tanker cars on the (Great Sandhills Railway) rail line right beside the elevator,” Gizen said.

By early afternoon, there was nothing left of the elevator, Gizen said. His video footage shows smouldering wreckage on and around a pile of grain.

The elevator, which had a listed storage capacity of 3,320 tonnes, had held organic grain for the last couple of years, he said.

It’s too early yet to know what sparked the fire, he added.

The evacuation order was lifted by Tuesday afternoon, Gizen said as the fire was under control. “There’s nowhere it can really go right now.”

The fire also marks a loss for the community, he said, noting the site employed two people.

Current and former residents were sad to see their last elevator go. Gizen said it was “kind of a heritage site.”

Paterson’s other elevators in the area include a larger inland grain terminal at Swift Current and a small elevator at Fox Valley, about 50 km south of Prelate.

— Lisa Guenther is a field editor for Grainews and Country Guide at Livelong, Sask. Follow her at @LtoG on Twitter. For more photos and video of the Prelate fire, visit @gizen_jason on Twitter.

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China’s quarantine authority, AQSIQ, told Ottawa last week it would allow no more than one per cent foreign material — called dockage — in Canadian canola shipments as of April 1.

Some say the move is linked to a disagreement between the countries over potential risk for transmitting the blackleg fungus, while others say China wants to slow imports due to its large rapeseed oil stocks.

The higher standard is expected to be difficult and costly for Canadian exporters to meet.

“Companies that are placed in this hardship will think twice about supplying any of these individuals again if some of these obstacles are proven false,” PGF CEO Andrew Paterson said in an interview Wednesday.

Canadian farmers will ultimately pay for heightened risks shipping to China, Paterson said.

Grain handlers will pay them less to cover the risk of shipments potentially being rejected in China, although such discounting has not yet begun, he said.

“That’s why it’s important that the government of Canada and the regulatory bodies fight hard to make sure that these things are not accepted without a very good argument and fight.”

Paterson GlobalFoods is a private, family-owned company based in Winnipeg.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors from Winnipeg.

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Paterson announced Thursday it plans to build a 55,000-tonne capacity handling site at Daysland, about 40 km southeast of Camrose, to start accepting grain sometime next year.

The new unit train loading facility would be the third site in Alberta for privately-held, family-owned Paterson, which operates mainly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Its other Alberta handling assets include a 57,000-tonne capacity terminal at Dunmore, just east of Medicine Hat, and its 43,000-tonne capacity Long Plain terminal outside Gleichen, about 80 km east of Calgary.

At Daysland, which is on Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) track, Paterson plans to set up a “highly efficient” loop track — a system the company says it was the first in the industry to adopt, starting at the Long Plain facility in 2011.

With the loop track system, Paterson said it “has been able to minimize train loading times, setting a new industry benchmark.”

The Daysland site will also have a dual receiving area for “efficient” truck unloading, which with the rail system is expected to offer “quick turnaround times for off-farm deliveries.”

Other grain handlers already operating in the area include Viterra, at Camrose and Killam; Cargill, at Camrose and Viking; and Providence Grain and Great Northern Grain, with sites at Viking and Killam respectively. — AGCanada.com Network

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