Louis Dreyfus in Yorkton

[agstar77]

Mitsui of Japan is investing 30 mil in the plant to be constructed this spring. It is interesting to note Mitsui has purchased 100,000 hectares of farmland in Brazil to insure a supply of soybeans and other grains. Will this be the future of Agriculture in Canada? Would you like to be an employee of Mitsui? These questions should be a subject of discussion in farm communities. Considering the large investment and risk of Agriculture maybe is the way we should go.

[kamichel]

If I sold farm land to them , no I would not want to work for them because I would be retired.
If they built a crushing facility and I was into that type of work yes they would be paying some great wages and be great to work for.

[cropduster]

Aggie.......do you think they`d be dumb enough to invest here on the production side of things where we/they are being screwed out of 2plus dollars per bushel on our/there product????????????They invested there in production where there is a free market.Here on the processing side because they can benefit from the screwing we are taking!We don`t have the proper options under the board and never will until we have complete freedom!

[kamichel]

Enough of this CWB bashing already.

[just_wondering]

I have often thought of it Agstar would I farm if I was not the Boss?
I guess we all do have that option there are farms out there that require full on farm managers and farms that need someone to only know how to fill the air seeder and turn on the GPS.
In Australia I have friends who are neighbours of a farm owned by a pension fund and the farm pays them 10% on their money. These farms have an advisory team that consists of Agronomists, Accountants, and professional commodity marketers.
The fellows that I talked to were very happy with the setup, it's not for everyone , but then again I don't think they would hire everyone.
I have many friends who are miners, oilmen family in the north that work in the forest sector, most of these guys left the farm to make more money or in some cases they just liked the reliability of it all. Work your 40 collect your paycheck go home.
Working for THE MAN.

[northfarmer]

first of all, screw the CWB, there will never be enough bashing of this archaic collectivist organization till it ceases to exist and we finally have freedom....

on the Yorkton deal, I am not buying what you are selling Agstar....i will not succumb to your fear mongering tactics and conspiracy theory bullshit...this is a call right out of the cwb/nfu playbook.....

if primary production ever becomes profitable enough in a "free" market environment to have companies like this even want to invest in land and crop production, if they legally could, in western canada there will be more than enough capital put together for the current players in the field (pun intended) to take on the acres and make the money, and those unwilling to step up will be paid handsomely in rent or sell out if they so wish.....likley to one of their neighbors...not some japanese based trading company

[kamichel]

In Sask. we have some farmers deciding to sell to Alberta investors and rent the land back so that is not much different as any other foreign investor from outside Canada. Although I believe state owned enterprises should be scrutinized more such as chinese businesses.
http://www.tsx.com/en/market_activity/news_releases.html
buiness news 17;53 ET

[parsley]

Forign ownership is very different from domestic ownership.

What about Iraqi ownweship?

Cuban ownership?

North Korean ownership?

[agstar77]

Profitability has nothing to do with purchases by foreign companies . Its all about assurance of supply. They are worried about sourcing product. Even your " NEW" government is concerned, talking about controlling foreign takeovers. With all the concerns over climate change,the large populations in Asia and increase in production costs why wouldn't they want to assure supply by buying primary production?

[gregpet]

So why then, Agstar77, would they want to purchase canola that is processed here and not purchase the raw product? Even if they own part of the facility how does this assure supply? All they need to do is pay a premium and the products will go to the highest bidder. I know this is counter intuitive to the CWB mantra that many sellers will 'bid the price down'(although I am yet to see this happen in the real world and not just in the minds of CWB directors), this new capacity will have to pay to attract our product. The open market can send out pricing signals that our product is in demand unlike a best guess (CWB pro) at what I may receive in 18 months.
Let them invest in opportunities here and not abroad. Create all the direct and indirect employment here, stimulate our economy, give me more options in a free market.
Let them invest in milling opportunities and malt projects here so that ... oh I forgot who wants to with the current archaic system in place. Time for a change.

Oh yeah,screw the CWB.

[agstar77]

GP , and when did you ever believe that there is a free market in any good or service produced? There is always some sort of control whether it is Government or multinational. There may be levels of control but no truly free market.

[gregpet]

I was not talking about an idealistic free market that we read about in our text books. I am talking about reality and the free market that sends us price signals so we can manage our risk, lock in profitable prices, make informed planting decisions, etc...
That may be a problem with the CWB thinking, it does not deal with the real world and real people, it is an idealistic institution that decides to insulate itself from the real world.

[agstar77]

When you are looking out a year the open market doesn't have a great record of providing proper signals.

[gregpet]

But I am able to lock in a profitable price.

[northfarmer]

agstar....quit sniffing the glue....

the open market does not send proper signals?

what do you think the Canola market signal is....

$10 plus canola off the combine......plant it, forward sell some of it, sell even more with a call option ....

but wheat, I have buy into into these bullshit futures only FPC for next year, and then cover my position on the MGEX....

with $10 wheat right now on MGEX, and $8.25 Dec 08.....but &*ck wheat i will grow peas. canola and oats, there will be less wheat grown than there should be beacuse we are shackled by this bullshit designated area crap by the CWB.......screw the CWB....

by the way Japanese trading house Matsui is already major player and buyer of commodities from Canada, investing in plant with LD is not suprise to me...they likely forsee growing demand for not only our raw canola but also oil and see the margin opportunity in crushing it.....this brings one of my customers closer to my farm...all the better.....the more comeptition for Bunge and other crushers the better for basis!!!