FNA and Green Lentils

[Jagfarms]

WHat is FNA's plan with the green lentil's? I phoned in but I have not got the info yet.

[melvill]

Actually, Jagfarms, I saw the ad in the Western Sed....er...Producer and wondered what their plan is, too. I haven't had chance to phone them yet. Anyone else have any ideas. To me it sounds like the old wheat-cartel idea from the 70s or a pooling plan where W. Canadian growers hold product off the market until the market is willing to pay up.

I'd be interested in hearing others' ideas.

[lakenheath]

Whereas reducing input costs has been the primary and first phase of FNA's activities thus far, the organization is now poised to also tackle the second phase of operations: the output side of farming. Increasing farmer's returns for their product, effectively tying primary producers closer to the end-user is now a significant part of what the future of FNA is all about.

For example, international negotiations are taking place to market green lentils to South America. As Canada produces 80% of world exports of this legume, it seems only fair that farmers start extracting more of the value out of their crop.

FNA instead has a vision to look at the marketing system as a whole, where farmers would invest in an organization that would in turn invest in value-added companies in all agricultural sectors, seeing their product through to the grocery store shelf. This would allow the farmers to capture the profits for themselves-the investors-and see the return on their investment grow exponentially over the years they remained involved with the organization.



Cost Plus Marketing
Commodity markets are no longer working in the best interest of the farmer and resulting in a situation where extremely high risk is attached to very low return. From an investment point of view, this situation is unattractive. From an industry point of view, it is unacceptable.

"Cost Plus Marketing" would allow a farmer to be paid for the cost of producing the product plus a margin of profit set by the level of risk that is assumed when producing it. Like in any investment, the higher the risk - the higher the potential returns should be.

FNA is currently formulating alternative marketing opportunities for members so that each individual farmer has more power in their marketing programs.



Direction
Given the ever increasing world trade in processed food products it is imperative that farmers be participants in that as an extension of their businesses. At present the food processing corporate giants dominate this industry and farmers see very little of the profits from this lucrative market. In an attempt to ensure supplies to feed this burgeoning industry these companies are setting up unnecessary uneconomical handling facilities to gain control of the raw product. Only as a combined group across North America will farmers be able to achieve the necessary returns for their products. We will achieve this by commercial means rather than political. Where possible we will work with other existing single desk selling agencies.

We will see a greater role for FNA in the actual operations of our members. We hope to be able to offer them detailed crop analysis, business planning, access to equity capital pools, access to custom equipment and access to skilled seasonal labor. We may be able to move this stage forward if we are very successful in our membership drive. If we are successful to the point secondary suppliers' facilities become vastly underutilized, there may be an opportunity to have a strategic alliance with this group (chemical and fertilizer dealers) to provide the following services through the FNA structure:

Detailed crop assessment
Custom work services (field operations including seeding, spraying, NH3 and other fertilizer and chemical application)
Manage a temporary seasonal labor force
As farm size increases, the need for these kinds of services are increasing. The efficiency of these services if managed properly should be higher than the farmer utilizing his own resources as the high capital cost pieces of equipment would be able to service many more acres than a normal farm would be able to. This also gives the average farm access to the latest technologies (and resulting efficiencies) that he may not otherwise be able to afford.

FNA wants to provide direct investment on behalf our membership into emerging high tech companies identified as being future suppliers of products to our membership (eg. in better germ plasm, better nutrient utilization techniques, etc.).

The agricultural industry brings in billions of dollars in profit each year. It's time the farmer received

[lakenheath]

Sorry for the long "cut and paste", hopefully it helps. I got it from the FNA website.

[Zaphod]

Cost Plus marketing is a good idea in theory, but trying to convince South American or Indian buyers that Canadian farmers need a profit margin is next to impossible. And if we try to hold product off the market until we get an acceptable return, don't think that farmers in other countries won't jump on that opportunity. It would be the incentive for American acres to double (again).