North African deals

[rockpile]

Charlie, anyone? We do a lot of grain business with
North African countries both Board and Non-Board,
both cash and long term. What is our risk factor
looking like in view of what is happening and is there
some crop planting intelligence (advice) that farmers
should take into account?
Rockpile

[charliep]

From what I know, North Africa has been a secure payment market. If there is debt, it
is likely to be backed by EDC (Export Development Canada) or similar insurance. At
the end of the day, credit transactions the CWB completes will be backed by the
Canadian government (ie. the taxpayer).

Again to highlight, relatively rich markets in much of North Africa (lots of oil),
mechanisms like letters of credit to guarantee payment that have been/are used and
insurance processes that can be used that can be used to ensure credit risk.
Something that will have to be watched in terms of the future however.

[charliep]

To evaluate the importance of North African markets, you can look at the new CWB statistics handbook that comes with the annual report. A document I use a lot.

[URL="http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/about/investor/annual/pdf/09-10/stats_english2009-10.pdf"]CWB stat pub[/URL]