Alliance Seed Corporation, as the name implies, is a new joint venture involving two grain companies and four inland terminals.
It was created to serve western Canadian farmers as well as keep its parent companies competitive in the grain business, says Alliance Seed’s manager Dale Alderson.
“It has been a long time coming together,” Alderson said in an interview here during the Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting Feb. 26. “We intend to be active this spring.”
Alliance Seed’s owners are Paterson Grain, Parrish & Heimbecker, Weyburn Inland Terminal, North West Terminal, Prairie West Terminal and Great Sandhills Terminal. They also jointly own Alliance Grain Terminal in Vancouver.
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“We’ve worked together so it’s not a foreign concept,” said Alderson, who is also Paterson Grain’s seed manager.
There’s a trend to grain companies getting exclusive rights to crop varieties with specific traits. Farmers purchase that variety from a grain company or a seed grower working with the company and the farmer is obliged to deliver the production back to that grain company. Smaller grain firms need to be able to offer similar programs to remain competitive, Alderson said.
Initially, Alliance Seed Corporation will focus on selling certified cereal crop seed, but given time, will expand to other crops, Alderson said.
