With the decline of the Canadian Wheat Board and pool elevators, producer-owned grain facilities have fallen by the wayside. But one group is looking to change that.
“The Wheat Board losing their monopoly has really changed the grain industry and opened up some opportunities, and I think the appetite is there again,” said Mark Bratrud, founding member of Comtrax Logistics Solutions.
The plan is to build a 260-plus railcar track system with a loop track to allow a grain-handling facility to be built near Weyburn on CP Rail’s Soo Line. It will be a grain, oilseed and pulse-handling facility with storage capacity of approximately 60,000 tonnes. Half or more of the facility will be able to be sold as grain storage units to commercial traders or handlers.
“It will be a fee-for-service type of facility that will allow grain companies that are looking to procure grain out of this area access to the area and the grain grown, without having to build their own facility,” Bratrud said.
The terminal will service southeast Saskatchewan and be producer-owned. It will also be trans-loading capable in order to service crude oil, aggregate, fertilizer and other commodities.
Producers will be able to invest in the facility and buy shares, making it different from other commodity hubs. Comtrax is holding a series of meetings with producers starting next week.
Meetings will be held starting Dec. 8 in Regina at the Executive Royal Hotel at 9 a.m. Subsequent meetings will be held in Ogema, Weyburn, Carlyle, Radville, Estevan, Oungre, Montmartre, Milestone, Corning and Sedley.
The structure for shares in the company will depend on how much interest producers show at the meetings.
This new company will be producer-minded. If there is a problem with a commodity, Bratrud said they want to help producers solve it whether it be through special cleaning, drying or other measures that might need to be taken.
Source : Leaderpost