Pasta plant?

[stonepicker]

There will be an oppurtunity again in the future when it will be feasible to build a pasta plant. I know your old willy, but get a life, you sound like a bitter old man.

[perfecho]

Blackpowder.this taken from a publication of Sept 15th this year...
"Farmers are responding to the lower forecast Farmgate Milk Price by returning to more traditional farming practices. They are reducing the use of feed supplements, and lowering stocking rates per hectare as they concentrate on utilising pasture.

"Market data from several independent sources show that cows are being culled at higher rates than last season while many of our farmers are also providing early advice that they are expecting significant year on year volume reductions," Hurrell said.

[vvalk]

Wilagro is the stereotypical cwb supporter. Telling you what's best for your farm. I don't grow any wheat or barley but trust me if I did the cwb is the best.

[jdepape]

Talking about CWB interference in farmer-run pasta plants on the prairies means you're talking about Prairie Pasta Producers (PPP). Here's some relevant facts:

- PPP was over 600 farmers that wanted to process their durum into pasta to extract full value.

- the CWB had a policy that allowed farmers to process their own grain on their own farm and sell the products, without CWB involvement, but the products could not be sold outside the province they were produced in.

- the CWB took the position that PPP would be a commercial enterprise - not farmers processing their own grain, and therefore had to buy its durum from the CWB (not its owners) and its owners had to sell to the CWB (not to their own plant).

- the CWB criticized PPP as being a small group of farmers wanting to "cherry pick" the high-valued North American market for themselves, forsaking all other farmers.

- PPP countered with the idea that ALL durum farmers could belong to PPP. They presented the idea of a "Pasta Pool" - a CWB pool for all farmers wanting to invest in pasta production and reap the full rewards.

- The PPP argument allowing all farmers to participate in processing (if they chose) through the Pasta Pool was a compelling argument as it fit very well with the culture of pooling. On that basis, the CWB board voted on allowing PPP the exemptions they were seeking and open the door to a potential Pasta Pool. It lost by one vote.

- In the end, the idea of investing in an enterprise that would rely on one supplier (the CWB) that had a reputation of changing the rules of engagement - always in its favour - put PPP in the same camp as many other would-be investors in processing in Canada, known by the acronym ABC - Anywhere But Canada.

- For PPP farmers, dealing with the CWB in the way the CWB prescribed was repugnant. The true value of vertical integration would be lost.

So, yes - the CWB clearly was an impediment to processing in the prairies. I can give more examples if you like.

As for Murad's plant, I can't say why he hasn't built yet. But things change. Whereas the CWB used to be a dominant factor, its not the only factor.

[bucket]

Depape

Btw Your welcome.

[blackpowder]

John. Is there a factual inclusive unbiased book written or being planned by anyone? Perhaps no one would read it but a study on the how and why these decisions were made over the years.
I wonder how many people know what went on after the war for the sake of 'equality'.

[jdepape]

Bucket:

Thank you?
I guess?

[jdepape]

blackpowder:

I don't know of any book that would cover this stuff. I know some old traders that have talked about it. (I've even talked about it - have a bunch written - but life and work gets in the way.)

And there's loads of stories.

I know a trader who sold three cargoes of feed wheat to South Korea in a year when we had piles and piles of low quality wheat. The CWB caught wind of the sale. Whenever the trader approached the CWB for pricing, the CWB held its price high, even as world values were plummeting. This went of for a few weeks and finally, when the trader had to cover the sale, he bought from Australia at the then current values which had dropped like a stone since he made the sale. The CWB failed - they didn't realize that the trader had sold on the basis of "optional origin".

A bad combination of arrogance and ignorance.

A missed opportunity - three more cargoes of feed wheat for the CWB to sell elsewhere at stupidly lower prices.

[Jdhot]

Whoa chill out fellas. I thought that whole monopoly thing was history, but appears not.
On the durum market TODAY. One has to think that pasta processed locally is unlikely. Therefore you have US mill markets and offshore. If we end up with a issue like we did a year ago, railroad will refuse to pull into U.S. And then down to only offshore market. Or the local terminal market due to transport logistics. Something to factor in.

[chuckChuck]

The Prairie Pasta initiative was not viable with or without the CWB. There is/was overcapacity in pasta production in North America and lots of cheap imports make building new capacity uneconomic. Unless the market changes for pasta there won't be a plant built in Western Canada.

[MBgrower]

I could never understand how you can process pasta in sask and export it expecting to be profitable. What is the density of one container of pasta vs one container of clean durum seed? How well does it hold quality during transit? Is it like my ceral box, full of crumbs at the bottom? Cereal could be produced in western canada, but it isnt, probably because there isnt a large enough local market to justify a proccessor? Is it economies of scale, ie if we built a massive mill in sask to produce pasta and cereals, could we be profitable and compete with offshore mills?

[Braveheart]

MBGrower, Dakota Growers has been producing pasta in the middle of North Dakota for a few decades. Transportation logistics aren't as big an issue as getting quality durum is. Fusarium changed the game.

[jdepape]

Chuckchuck -

Prairie Pasta was advised to buy existing capacity, not add to it. At the time, there were plants for sale that would have been a good fit. The CWB issues were still there though.

Concerning your "cheap imports" comment - I think it's ironic that you would use this as a reason why it doesn't make sense to build here - considering that a lot of those imports are made with Canadian durum.