G3’s Karl Gerrand, CWB CEO Ian White, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and CWB chief strategy officer Dayna Spiring (from left) announce G3’s $250 million plan to take a majority stake in CWB. (Dave Bedard photo)

Bunge, Saudi Arabia to buy control of CWB

Agribusiness giant Bunge and the Saudi Arabian government’s ag investment arm are the joint “successful acquirer” of the former Canadian Wheat Board. Bunge Canada and SALIC Canada, an arm of the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co., on Wednesday announced their new Winnipeg-based joint venture, G3 Global Grain Group, will pay $250 million to CWB



The Brand X elevator and corporate control of the food supply

The potential for contracted acres to be linked to herbicide and fertilizer purchases as well as point of delivery was already there

When Manitoba Pool Elevators and the Alberta Wheat Pool amalgamated in 1998 to become Agricore, I joked at the local watering hole that we really needed to invent an elevator sign that was Velcro backed. Even then, it was apparent that there was a lot of work involved in rebranding trade names on very tall

Foreign traders vying for piece of North American grain-handling sector

The urgency to operate in the United States or Canada has grown because of increasing global demand for crops

For decades, the world’s leading grain traders like Cargill and Bunge enjoyed an unparalleled advantage: their smaller North American competitors lacked the flexibility and diversity of a global operation, and their foreign rivals lacked access to the biggest and most stable exporters in the world. That’s about to change. Large U.S. and Canadian grain companies


Syngenta Sues Bunge Over Rejection Of GMO Corn Type

Syngenta Seeds, a unit of the world’s largest agrochemicals company Syngenta AG, has filed suit against major grain handler Bunge for refusing to accept a type of its biotech corn. Syngenta claims Bunge’s North America operations are illegally refusing to handle a type of genetically modified corn that is designed to protect the crop against

Canola Continues To Be The Golden Crop

Canola continues to be the darling of the vegetable oil market – and the industry is urging Prairie farmers to keep cranking up production. Western Canadian farmers have painted the Prairies yellow with canola, but processors say they want more. The Canola Council of Canada wants farmers to produce 15 million tonnes of canola by


Argentina Expels Bunge From Key Grains Registry

Argentina has expelled agribusiness giant Bunge from a key government grains registry after a tax probe, a source at the AFIP tax agency spokesman said May 10. Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, and Cargill, among other grain exporters, were suspended from the registry by the tax agency for alleged tax evasion earlier this year. Argentine tax inspectors

Farmers Welcome Canola Crush Expansion

Bunge’s plan to more than double the capacity of its canola-crushing plant at Altona to 2,500 tonnes a day is good news for farmers, but it also means they’ll have to grow more canola. “We’re always glad to see investment in the canola crush because it creates demand and more demand must mean they are



Bunge Exits Brazil Fertilizers

The advance of mining companies BHP Billiton and Brazil’s Vale in the fertilizer sector in the past few years kept U. S. agribusiness group Bunge on tenterhooks. The world’s largest oilseed processor realized it was time for change in its operations. The result was the recent announcement that the firm would sell its upstream fertilizer