Viterra

[TFLN]

Has signed a handling agreement with CWB

[bucket]

This surprises me. They really don't need the cwb as they are a global company now with their own facilities.

Unless they are tapping into that billion dollar guarantee from the government and kissing the asses of their customers on both sides of the debate.

I guess it will give the customer the opportunity to choose how and who to sell his grain depending on grade protein etc. Imagine that - CHOICE!!!

And right by an elevator near you.

[wilagro]

And the cost is?

[bucket]

Maybe the same or less as when the cwb was the single desk.

You can't actually believe the grain companies handled cwb grains for the last 60 years for nothing?

The richardson are one of the wealthiest families in canada. So are the pattersons, the hiembeckers etc. They have been milking the cwb/farmers for years except now it might be a little harder to hide the gravy train.

[jensend]

in an interview earlier this year or late last year the paterson that is now at the head of paterson grain said that the company's most profitable times had been before the cwb and he expected profitability to increase with the demise of the cwb. i'm glad to see the cwb go but don't think the grain co's are going to compete each other into the ground. olipolies or oligopsonies have short periods of intense competition and long periods of coexisting quite amicably at the customers' expense. way she goes.

[Hopperbin]

The times before and after the CWB monopoly are quite different.

[bucket]

If the cwb took away the profitable years in grain marketing from the grain companies for the last 75 years, why are farmers and the cwb not as wealthy as the richardsons, patersons and hiembeckers.

Those companies are feeding a line of bullshit and I don't believe it. The cwb had to work hand in hand with them ****ing farmers over otherwise the cwb would have the asset base these guys have. The cwb was part of the scam.

I just have to remember the 250 million they lost on a rogue managers play in the markets that cost farmers a healthy final payment.The grain companies didn't lose that money, the cwb lost it on farmers behalf and pocketbooks.

[bobofthenorth]

Anybody besides me remember those huge big wooden annexes that used to be on the side of every Pioneer elevator? Those were so the Richardsons could profit from the statutory storage rates. They filled up, let your grain sit and you paid them to store it via your beloved CWB. The graincos did just fine in a CWB environment and they will do just fine in a post-CWB environment. The only difference is that you producers will have real choices in how you market wheat.

[jensend]

i guess reading comprehension is getting to be an issue. he said most profitable not only profitable times were before the cwb. as well the point is there is more profit in merchandising and handling than in only handling grain. that's why these small producer-owned terminals have a short life expectancy - can they get the financing to buy the bushels that come up the driveway? think about how it's going to work now and see that the world is changing and i don't think a lot of farmers can see all the implications of these changes.

[hobbyfrmr]

Bucket, I agree 120%. Well said.

[bucket]

If the marketing manager at a small terminal is doing his job, he should be eliminating risk as those loads show up. And their balance sheet should be ok.

Its when things like the 250 million dollar discretionary trading losses take place that they will fail. Unfortunately for prairie farmers no one was held to account for that. Instead, the cwb hired some ex cwbers to write a report that couldn't be shown to the very farmers affected and that paid for the report.

That is how you quickly go out of business when the boss (ie the government) holds you to account.

And had they fired the ****ing donkeys that were responsible - Ward Wiesensal for one - they may have gained some credibility.

[TFLN]

Also has signed deals with Mission Terminal, West Central Rail & Road, Delmar commodities, Linear Grain and AgroSource

[Choice2U]

So...before the CWB....1940's and earlier. After the CWB...this August coming up. How the hell can someone remember their profitability 75 years ago? Is that even relevant? And to state their profitablity was better "after the CWB"....I don't understand because it hasn't happened yet.

[Choice2U]

Sorry. I misread Jensend regarding "post CWB". I guess he was hypothesizing.