If Canadian farmers are going to meet the Canola Council of Canada's goal of 26 million tonnes of canola production by 2025, they're going to need some major improvements to the grain transportation system.
That message was shared by the council's chair and Nipawin-area farmer Terry Youzwa at the Canadian Global Crops Symposium in Winnipeg this week.
Last year Canadian farmers produced around 18 million tonnes of canola, and a large percentage of that crop is still in storage on farms as a result of the current backlog in the grain handling system.
"The logistics challenges are certainly our greatest short-term obstacle, but when we look ahead we are seeing investment in infrastructure. I want to believe that the ability to collaborate and be transparent about future plans will be shared," said Youzwa. "We certainly know the demand potential for our products is there, but we need to ensure we can move it through the system in a competitive, cost-effective manner."
He urged companies involved in grain transportation to focus on meeting higher demand in the future, rather than surpassing past performance standards.
"It's not enough to achieve your past goals or beat your past three-year average. We have much broad opportunities in the future and we want to pursue those so we can deliver economic value to our supporters, our growers, life science companies, our crushers and our exporters," he explained.
Several grain companies have recently announced new capital projects to improve elevator and port capacity, noted Youzwa.
"We're already starting to see significant capital flow into elevator construction and port capacity," he said. "We have to realize this is a ten year vision, but when you look over ten years, there will be additional capital attracted and investments made to address the challenge and make progress toward it."
Source: PortageOnline