“Organic grain producers in Canada have few resources to help them navigate the local and international marketplace,” said Marie-Eve Levert, director of business development for the new Organic Grain Hub, in a Sept. 21 news release. “There is a pricing information vacuum.”

The organic sector has “no central directory of organic grain buyers, and a lack of in-depth market analysis that is specifically tailored to the sector,” she said.

Data is critical to growing any crop, but for the organic industry, it’s been hard to come by.

The Organic Grain Hub launched the same day as the release. The digital platform aggregates organic crop price data through a combination of crowd sourcing and bi-monthly calls with major Canadian organic buyers, according to the news release. It contains a directory of organic buyers and will be accompanied by a newsletter with industry analysis.

The hub was established by the Manitoba Organic Alliance in partnership with Prairie organic producer groups.

“While mainstream grain farmers have many sources to help them access up-to-date pricing, we noticed an important gap for organic grain growers, leaving these farmers at the mercy of the markets,” said Laura Telford, organic industry development specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.

Telford represents the province in a non-voting capacity with the Manitoba Organic Alliance.

Price discovery can be tough for organic farmers, said Royden Loewen in a December interview with the Co-operator. He is an organic farmer and a board member with the Manitoba Organic Development Fund, which backed the hub.

“Sometimes the buyers themselves don’t quite yet know what the price will be because they have to get a sense of what’s available and what isn’t. It can vary a lot from one buyer to the next,” he said.

READ MORE: Visit OrganicBiz for organic price updates.

General lack of data has been a sticking point for the sector.

“I don’t think there’s a bigger [issue in the sector],” Telford told the Co-operator in December.

The dearth of data encompasses imports, exports, sales, prices, crop acreage, farmer information and “pretty much everything” else, she said.

This affects business planning and also makes it difficult to prove the sector’s worth to business and government leaders, Telford said.

Part of the problem is that data isn’t collected. In the same December story, Canadian Organic Trade Association executive director Tia Loftsgard said it took several years of meetings with Statistics Canada to get questions about organics added to the 2021 agricultural census.

The association then paid to have that data extracted, she said.

Another issue arises when data is collected but can’t be used, such as when the data set is too small. Telford said this happens in Manitoba.

The Manitoba Agriculture Services Corporation might collect data on organic oat acres, but if only two farmers grow the crop, the data can’t be disclosed. There must be at least three farmers in a particular area to allow disclosure of acreage data.

The post Organic grain price discovery hub launches appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Homestead Organics, founded and still run by organic driving force Tom Manley, will be sold off, likely in parts.

The company said its Shakespeare, Ont. mill is in the process of being sold and will continue as an organic outlet.

The two other locations owned by the company, at Berwick and Morrisburg, Ont., will be offered for sale.

The bankruptcy of the company will result in some farmers not being paid for their grain. Manley apologized on the company’s website to farmers who have not got paid, but asked that anyone owing money continue to pay their accounts, as that will help pay farmers.

Manley is the president of the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO), which he helped resurrect when it was in danger of closing three years ago. Manley and two other organic companies collected 50 cents per tonne of grain sold, then matched it, sending the funds to the OCO to help keep it going.

That voluntary checkoff was equal to individual memberships in revenue for the organization, said Carolyn Young, executive director of OCO. The closure of Homestead Organics will cut into that revenue.

OCO is working on a proposal for a mandatory checkoff and Young said she hopes the organization will have more to share soon.

Manley was a strong, bilingual voice for organics across Canada. Ironically, his work has helped build the sector, attracting bigger players in the grain market to organics, making business tougher for medium-sized players such as Homestead Organics.

The company had expanded in the past few years, including to Shakespeare in 2016 where it supplied organic animal feed, at the same time as new competitors were entering the business. The Morrisburg location was opened in 2013.

Homestead Organics supplied large organic farmers and hobby farmers and gardeners as well, Young said.

“Everybody’s feeling the loss,” she said. Homestead Organics performed an important role in the sector in education, she added, including employing agronomists to help farmers growing organic crops.

Organic “pioneers suffer the consequences of their success,” she said, as larger companies with better access to cash flow and capital see a market where they can compete, once the market has grown large enough.

“We’re having success convincing people organics is no longer a niche or a trend, but in doing so, we have to be wary and cognizant of carefully growing the market so transitions are not hitting some businesses harder than some others,” she said.

Farmer Colin Lundy of Strathmere Farms at North Gower said the loss of Homestead Organics would be a “huge blow to the organic sector in eastern Ontario.”

Organic livestock farmers had confidence in Homestead’s feed quality and that it was also produced locally, said Lundy.

Homestead Organics listed alternative suppliers on its website, but Lundy said the challenge of finding new suppliers could cause some farmers to quit growing organically.

— John Greig is editor of Farmtario at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

The post Ontario organic grain buyer Homestead closing appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Pipeline Foods — which has hung out its shingle as a buyer of organic, non-GMO wheat, pulses and oats for food and feed — announced Tuesday it has bought a CHS elevator at Lignite, N.D. The community is about 17 km south of the Canada/U.S. border crossing at North Portal in southeastern Saskatchewan.

The Lignite elevator, which has capacity for 3,500 tonnes, “will supplement Pipeline Foods’ storage and origination program in Saskatchewan, which will increase efficiency and allow Pipeline Foods to grow its volume and customer base in the region,” the company said in a release.

The company previously noted organic grain production has “grown steadily” in southern Saskatchewan in response to consumer demand.

Pipeline CEO Eric Jackson said the North Dakota site gives the company its “first primary collection point for organic grain, and the capability to connect this grain supply with food companies and manufacturers across the U.S.”

The company, which set up earlier this year with backing from players such as New York agribusiness investment firm Amerra Capital Management, announced last month it had bought its first elevators at Wapella and Gull Lake, Sask.

The Lignite elevator, which has access to both BNSF and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) track, is expected to run throughput of 25,000 tonnes of grain during 2018, the company said.

U.S. agriprocessing co-operative CHS had been handling malting barley at Lignite and operating the facility as part of its CHS SunPrairie division.

“The elevator at Lignite is an old facility which is too small and inefficient for conventional crops in today’s market, and most similar elevators have already been closed and torn down,” Dan Folske, North Dakota State University’s extension agent for Burke County, said in Pipeline’s release.

Shifting the elevator to handle organic grain, he said, “should mean that it has a viable future for years to come, with corresponding jobs and property taxes for the city of Lignite and Burke County.”

Pipeline reiterated Tuesday it will commit between $300 million and $500 million over the next three to five years “to build a better, more sustainable supply chain in agriculture.” Terms of the Lignite deal weren’t disclosed. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Organic grain firm picks up elevator near border appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Pipeline Foods on Wednesday announced it has bought small elevators at Wapella, about 130 km south of Yorkton, and at Gull Lake, about 50 km southwest of Swift Current, for an undisclosed sum.

Both elevators are on Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) track and in communities on the Trans-Canada Highway for “inbound and outbound truck and rail convenience,” the company said in a release.

Set up earlier this year with backing from players including New York agribusiness investment firm Amerra Capital Management, Pipeline said it plans to store, screen and blend grains including barley, corn, rye, flax, lentils, oats, peas, soybeans and wheat at the two elevators for shipment by truck or rail.

For Wapella, Pipeline said its purchase will include installation of a main line rail switch to reconnect the elevator to CP track after being out of service for over 15 years.

“We are very excited to have Pipeline Foods take over the elevator in Wapella, and about the return of trains rolling through town to pick up grain cars,” Wapella Mayor Sandy Hintz said in Pipeline’s release.

At Gull Lake, where the company bought its facility in August from the local Gull Lake Grain Corp., Mayor Blake Campbell said he “recently had an opportunity to tour the Pipeline Foods facility and was impressed with the current operations and planned upgrades.”

The Wapella and Gull Lake facilities, which have capacity to handle 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of grain respectively, are now also certified organic through Pro-Cert, Pipeline said, noting it plans “initial capital investments” this year to increase capacity at both sites.

For 2018, Pipeline said, the two elevators are each expected to move about 25,000 tonnes of grain. The company said it’s now “actively buying all classes of organic wheat, pulses and oats.”

“Our expansion through these two facilities will enable Pipeline Foods to cultivate closer relationships with producers, ensure a clean and transparent supply, and ultimately offer better value for our customers,” Pipeline CEO Eric Jackson said in the company’s release.

“The Wapella and Gull Lake grain elevators place us right in the heart of Canadian organic grain production, provide a new channel for farmers to do business, and allow us to connect this grain supply with food companies and manufacturers across the U.S.”

Overall, Pipeline said, it’s also “pursuing opportunities” to invest $300 million to $500 million over the next three to five years “to build a better, more sustainable supply chain in agriculture.”

On its website, Pipeline said it already has over 40 staff in North and South America, including those at its Minneapolis office, the two Saskatchewan elevators and new regional offices in Winnipeg and Buenos Aires.

Going forward, the company said it plans to invest in “assets to support growth in organic and non-GMO grains, provide professional expertise to farmers and food companies, and partner with like-minded individuals and organizations.” — AGCanada.com Network

The post U.S. organic grain firm buys Saskatchewan elevators appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I think most people know that in the market today, demand outstrips supply and that’s why we have the prices that we do,” said Ken Sabatier, a buyer for Grower’s International Organic Sales, in last week’s Western Canadian Organic webinar, the last of a lunch-hour series organized this spring.

In 2008-09, a price crash followed by a period of marketing “doldrums” spooked many farmers back into conventional production, but since then demand has steadily crawled back, he said.

Last year’s long winter and delayed spring resulted in less organic wheat going in the ground. That, and poor winter wheat-growing conditions in the United States in 2013 has crimped supplies.

“There has been a dramatic increase in wheat prices,” said Sabatier, but he expected that normal spring growing conditions and what looks like a good winter wheat crop south of the border could bring supplies more back in line with demand.

Oats, barley and flax supplies — and consequently prices — remained stable over the same time frame.

Sabatier said that the rail fiasco has had an impact on Canadian credibility in the organic sector, too, and some sales have been lost.

“Customers still want our product and they are willing to wait for it — within limits,” he said, adding that a four-month delay seems to be the breaking point.

Pete Manahan, a buyer for F.W. Cobs Company Inc., a Vermont-based company that supplies a number of feed mills in the U.S, said that there is strong demand for organic feed barley.

More from the Manitoba Co-operator website: Group says GM alfalfa a nightmare scenario

F.W. Cobs manages logistics to ensure “timely movement,” and buys grain f.o.b. the farm. It is also a buyer of organic wheat, both feed and milling quality, as well as feed rye, peas, oats and screenings. The drought in the U.S. Midwest in 2012 sent feed grain prices to record levels, but better crops this year have flattened things out.

“There has been a fairly large supply of organic feed grains, mainly due to carry-over of organic corn,” said Manahan, but he added that organic feedlot production has been steadily recovering.

Feed wheat has been “almost eliminated” this year due to milling prices upwards of $20 per bushel, but imports from Europe and South America have been plugging gaps.

“We have been hearing more and more about the coming non-GMO markets, and how they might affect our markets,” he said, adding that more end-users are aiming to market their products as GMO free.

The 200 per cent premium over conventional for most crops is luring more farmers into organic, he added.

“We may see an upward swing in the amount of those grains produced, but for now, it has yet to be seen how many acres will go into that market.”

Terry Tyson, a buyer of mainly oats for Grain Millers since 2001, said that robust demand growth of 10-20 per cent a year had been matched by supply nearly every year up until 2008, when prices and demand crashed.

“But right now, with the financial ship righted, consumer demand is back, and really it’s better than ever,” said Tyson, adding that organic oat demand began to stabilize in 2010 and now the focus of end-users is securing supply.

Sabatier noted that more acres are going into organic soybeans and other non-traditional crops such as hemp, as well as ancient grains such as spelt, kamut, and einkorn.

End-users are getting the message, said Sabatier, and many are hiking their prices to ensure adequate supplies. Processors have also recognized that dependence on a single region puts them in the crosshairs of supply constraints, and many are now sourcing grains from other areas.

“Eastern Europe has essentially taken most of the European grain market away, and Russia is actually finalizing its own organic standards and getting equivalency with other countries,” said Sabatier, who added that the Crimea crisis may blunt that effect.

That trend of diversified supply has broadened the “global pool” of organic grains, and the effect on Canadian sales is being felt, he added.

Many conventional farmers are keen to switch sides, but the three-year transition period will prevent an overnight glut in supplies.

“Even if supply does increase, we’ve got a very strong growth trend for the next five to 10 years,” said Sabatier, noting that mandatory GMO labelling — if passed — may significantly boost demand for organics, but excessively high prices push end-users towards alternatives.

In Quebec, a new competitor in the form of “zero input certification,” essentially conventional grain that is pesticide and herbicide free, is pushing for legislative and regulatory permission to proceed.

“It won’t be present this crop year, but it may be something to consider because the ‘natural’ label has sort of lost its effect on the market,” said Sabatier.

The post Strong outlook for organic grain prices, panel says appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.