Richardson was a minority shareholder of Calgary-based Matex (formally known as Control Chemical Corporation) since 1989 before fully acquiring the company in 2021. Matex produces drilling fluids and vegetable oil-based lubricants used in mining and resource extraction processes.

Richardson supplied Matex with canola oil from its processing plant in Lethbridge, Alta.

Matex also makes specialty polymers, foams, blast hole stabilizers, thread compounds and non-alcohol freeze control fluids.

In a statement, Richardson said the sale more closely aligns with its “farm-to-table value chain” and “sets up Matex for continued success and stability under new ownership.”

“We saw an opportunity to transition Matex to an ownership group that is well positioned to support the business into the future,” said Darrell Sobkow, executive vice-president, processing, food and ingredients at Richardson International.

“Matex has built a strong reputation in its market, and we’re confident it will be in great hands. We thank Matex employees for their dedication throughout this process, and we are committed to working closely with the new owners to support a smooth transition.”

– With files from Dave Bedard

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The grain company rejoined the organization at its March 12 annual general meeting after nearly a nine-year hiatus.

“Richardson is a significant player in the industry in a number of different capacities, including as an exporter and processor, so it’s great to have them around the table as a member of the council,” said council president Chris Davison.

Richardson withdrew its funding from the canola council, the Flax Council of Canada and Soy Canada at the end of 2017.

It had been spending more than $1 million per year funding the three organizations.

“We don’t think we got the value out of it,” Jean-Marc Ruest, Richardson’s senior vice-president of corporate affairs, said at the time.

Davison said the council maintained a working relationship with Richardson over the ensuing years.

Recently he discussed the council’s updated priorities with the grain company.

“That led to a decision from them to rejoin the council as a regular member,” he said.

WHY IT MATTERS: Richardson was the only major grain company that was not a member of the council.

He doesn’t know what tipped the scale.

“That’s a question you might have to ask them,” said Davison.

“I think it’s more than one thing.”

Richardson was contacted for this story but did not reply in time to meet The Western Producer’s publication deadline.

One of Richardson’s original concerns surrounded the council’s extensive work on agronomy when the private sector had its own agronomists working in the countryside.

The council seemingly addressed that concern when it announced a “refreshed” strategic framework on July 31, 2025.

In that announcement, the organization said it would no longer maintain a field-based agronomy team.

Davison said the council will instead focus on maintaining or enhancing the ability to innovate, promoting canola’s role in biofuel, ensuring market access for canola products and conducting targeted market development around the world.

Exporters and processors provided $1.33 million, or 36 per cent, of the council’s core funding in 2025.

That compares to $1.55 million contributed by provincial grower groups, $750,000 from life science companies and $21,000 from affiliate memberships.

Davison would not divulge how much Richardson would be paying in 2026.

“We don’t talk about the amounts that individual organizations contribute,” he said.

However, he noted that it will be helpful to have the grain company back in the fold when it comes to tackling priorities and co-ordinating and aligning activities.

“The more of the industry that we have represented at the table the better that is,” said Davison.

Aaron Anderson of Richardson is one of three new directors for 2026-27. He will be a director-at-large nominated by the council’s board.

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Aaron Anderson of Richardson International is listed as one of three new directors for 2026-27.

Anderson will be a director-at-large nominated by the council’s board.

It is an interesting development because Richardson withdrew its funding from the Canola Council of Canada, the Flax Council of Canada and Soy Canada in late-2017.

It had been spending more than $1 million per year funding the three organizations.

“We don’t think we got the value out of it,” Jean-Marc Ruest, Richardson’s senior vice-president of corporate affairs, said at the time.

WHY IT MATTERS: The board appointment suggest industry heavyweight Richardson may have rejoined the commodity group.^

There were no press releases issued by either the canola council or Richardson about the company rejoining the fold.

The Western Producer has contacted both organizations and is waiting for a reply.

One of Richardson’s original concerns was over the canola council’s extensive work on agronomy when the private sector already had its own agronomists working in the countryside.

“Is there an element of duplication that should be looked at?” said Ruest at the time.

The council seemingly addressed that concern when it announced a “refreshed” strategic framework on July 31, 2025.

In that announcement, the organization said it would no longer maintain a field-based agronomy team.

The council said it would instead focus on three core priorities:

• Sustainable and reliable supply — growing the volume of Canadian canola to meet domestic and global market needs.
• Stable markets for value optimization — growing the economic value of canola by developing and defending markets for Canadian canola and canola products.
• Member service excellence — delivering continued value to members through council services and working to strengthen coordination and engagement with industry partners.

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Darwin Sobkow was announced Jan. 6 as the company’s new chief executive officer, effective Jan. 10 with the formal retirement of Curt Vossen, the company’s CEO since 1995.

Sobkow served as chief operations officer since 2020 for the Winnipeg-based, privately-held firm, an arm of family-owned James Richardson & Sons.

The company’s ag industry holdings include a network of 55 Prairie grain elevators; port terminals in B.C., Ontario and Quebec; canola crush plants at Lethbridge and Yorkton; oat milling facilities in the three Prairie provinces and one each in the U.S. and U.K.; several further-processing plants; and 93 Prairie ag retail outlets supplying seed and crop inputs to farmers in the region.

During a nearly 30-year stint as CEO, Vossen oversaw much of that expansion, including the acquisition of more grain elevators, mainly during other Prairie grain handlers’ mergers and divestitures—as well as acquisitions such as U.S. durum miller Italgrani USA and the U.S.-based Wesson cooking oil brand.

“Under his leadership and bold vision, Richardson International evolved into a world-class organization with expertise across its vertically integrated agribusiness and food processing operations,” the company said in its Jan. 6 announcement.

Richardson noted Sobkow, who started with Richardson in 1999 as executive vice-president for agribusiness operations and processing, was “instrumental” in those acquisitions and integrations.

His “operational expertise and deep industry knowledge will guide Richardson International into its next phase of growth,” the company said.

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Winnipeg-based Richardson on Monday announced expanded rail car spots for its elevators at Lacombe, Carseland, Provost and Olds, Alta.; Estevan, Whitewood and Nokomis, Sask.; and its Dundonald elevator about 20 km north of Portage la Prairie, Man.

At Whitewood, about 110 km south of Yorkton, the expansion work will also include upgraded storage capacity, bringing it up to about 44,800 tonnes from its current 31,140. A company spokesperson said the upgrades will also boost that site’s loading speed to 134 cars in 16 hours.

The expansion work is due to start later this summer for completion by the end of next year, Richardson said.

The expansions, CPKC said, will allow future trains from these sites to run under the railway’s 8,500-foot (2.6-kilometre) High Efficiency Product (HEP) model.

CPKC’s standard unit train for grain, which today runs up to 7,000 feet (2.1 km), is the model Richardson today ships from 27 CPKC-served elevators in Canada and one in the northern U.S.

In 2018, before its merger with Kansas City Southern, CP unveiled new high-efficiency grain hopper cars for the HEP model, featuring a five per cent shorter frame capable of carrying 10 per cent greater weight and 15 per cent more volume than previous-generation hopper cars. In all, CP said at the time, the 8,500-foot HEP train model is expected to allow a train to handle about 44 percent more grain.

Richardson’s newest elevator, commissioned earlier this year at Carmichael, Sask., about 65 km southwest of Swift Current, marks the grain handler’s first 8,500-foot HEP-compatible site, with a loop track to handle up to 175 high cube-style rail cars.

Richardson president Darwin Sobkow said in a release Monday the expansions at the eight Prairie elevators “will increase capacity and efficiency, enabling Richardson to further benefit from CPKC’s single-line network reaching Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.”

CPKC executive vice-president John Brooks said in the same release Monday that “Richardson’s ability to run longer trains will mean more grain shipped per train, tighter cycles and more Richardson trains moving across our expanded, single-line network throughout the season.”

The move follows the completion in April of CPKC’s merger, which officially ties CP’s track to Kansas City’s lines in the U.S. and Mexico.

That single-line rail network will also make for a “seamless pipeline” between Richardson’s Prairie elevators in “durum-rich areas in Saskatchewan” and its U.S. durum flour milling operation, Italgrani, at St. Louis, CPKC said Monday.

“Furthermore, the combined network and markets in the southern U.S. and Mexico are opening new doors to Richardson for their grains, oilseeds and processed products.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 announced Tuesday (Jan. 25) its negotiating committee “fully endorses” the new offer after the company’s Richardson Oilseed division “enhanced its offer of settlement.”

The workers’ previous contract expired at the end of August 2019; the union and company had agreed during earlier talks to seek a five-year contract taking it through to Aug. 31, 2024.

The next employee vote — to be held in person Feb. 1 at the Holiday Inn Express Lethbridge Southeast, and online on Feb. 2 — will be the second after workers voted 79 per cent to reject a previous proposal before Christmas.

Despite the union negotiators’ endorsement, UFCW said Tuesday, if the new offer is rejected, “we will proceed with the next steps towards a strike vote.”

The new offer, retroactive to September 2019, would see workers get a 2.25 per cent raise in the agreement’s first year, 2.75 per cent in the second, three per cent in the third and 2.5 per cent in each of the following three years — adding a sixth year to the agreement.

“By moving the money earlier in the contract, the negotiating committee was able to put more money in the membership pockets sooner,” UFCW executive director Chris O’Halloran said in a release Tuesday after the company agreed to the new raise schedule.

“We had heard that the membership wanted to see three per cent raises, and the company had offered them, but we wanted the money earlier in the CBA (collective bargaining agreement).”

Supplying customers in Canada and the U.S. as well as other export markets, Winnipeg-based Richardson’s Lethbridge plant has capacity to handle up to 700,000 tonnes of canola per year, following a $120 million expansion in 2017.

The Lethbridge plant includes a packaging facility at which canola oil is bottled and margarine and shortening are packaged. Its products are sold under the Canola Harvest and Wesson brands and to private-label and foodservice customers.

Richardson’s other oilseed facilities include its canola crush and refining plant at Yorkton, Sask. and its margarine plant at Oakville, Ont. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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James Richardson and Sons Ltd., the parent firm of agribusiness Richardson International, announced Jan. 5 it has bought 100 per cent of the shares of Winnipeg-based Bison Transport for an undisclosed sum.

Bison employs about 3,700 staff and contractors running a fleet of 2,100 trucks and 6,000 trailers across North America, Richardson said.

“We are excited about the opportunity to acquire Bison, which has an outstanding reputation for customer service, dependability, employee relations and safety built over the past 51 years,” Hartley Richardson, CEO of Winnipeg-based JRSL, said in a release.

The deal, which closed effective Jan. 1, won’t result in any changes to Bison’s operations, nor to the Bison brand, Richardson said, adding Bison will continue to be headquartered in Winnipeg.

Set up in 1969 by Duncan Jessiman to provide cartage services for the construction industry, Bison began its expansion as it picked up the catalogue business, first for Eaton’s, then for Sears.

Bison’s divisions today include dry vans, long combination vehicles, refrigerated hauling, “asset-based” logistics, intermodal trucking and warehousing and distribution.

Bison in recent years also grew through expansion, acquiring subsidiaries such as Searcy Trucking, Britton Transport and, in 2019, Wisconsin-based dry van firm H.O. Wolding.

“While we have mixed emotions, we are thrilled that we have found a buyer for Bison that shares our values of excellence and that cares for our employees and customers as much as we have over the past 51 years,” Peter Jessiman, CEO of Jessiman family holding company Wescan Capital, said in Richardson’s release.

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“Ellen has used her personal ties to Canadian agriculture to create unique and innovative opportunities for dietitians to learn about the complex world of farming and food production and has given us confidence to share that information as credible experts,” said the Dietitians of Canada on its website.

The Dietitians of Canada awarded Pruden the 2020 Honorary Patron Award, which is given to someone who is not a dietitian but has advanced the dietetics profession through their work, the site says.

Pruden, who has worked for the Manitoba Canola Growers for 20 years, heads Canola Eat Well, a partnership between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba canola groups to promote canola oil use to consumers. She has appeared on the cooking show “Great Tastes of Manitoba,” and hosts events to expose dietitians and others in the food industry to agriculture.

For Pruden, the award was a tremendous validation for years of work.

“Like wowzers!” she said in an interview with the Co-operator. “I just love doing it. Like, I’m really blessed to have the opportunity to be working with farmers and to continue to be part of their voice.”

Teacher to ag advocate

Pruden grew up on a farm near Lockport and said she has fond memories of riding in the combine and tractor with her dad as a youngster. At the time, agriculture or food studies didn’t seem like an option, so Pruden got her degree in education.

When she got out of school, Pruden couldn’t find a teaching job. She saw a posting with Manitoba Canola Growers to teach kids about agriculture. She got the job, and has been with the organization ever since.

Pruden was involved in developing the Canola Learning Centre on Kelburn Farm, a research farm south of Winnipeg owned by Richardson International. The centre teaches urban students about agriculture. She also worked with Agriculture in the Classroom. She’d go on to hold various positions before assuming her current role.

Her work with Canola Eat Well includes appearing on the cooking show “Great Tastes of Manitoba,” where Pruden uses her love of cooking to showcase canola products. When she spoke to the Co-operator she was in the midst of testing and developing recipes — the latest of which her family had given the thumbs down.

She’s also worked to educate dietitians, food writers and other food industry folk about farming. These days, consumers want to know how their food was raised and they ask their dietitians about this, said Pruden, but dietitians typically aren’t experts on farming.

“They don’t take any classes on agriculture and they’re being asked questions about agriculture,” Pruden said.

“I really view my job as to narrow that gap and provide opportunities for engagement with our farming community,” said Pruden. “Then have our farming community engage with our eaters… so that they understand what kind of questions and concerns, that you know, families, moms are asking.”

For the last eight years, Pruden has helped host Canola Connect Harvest Camp. This invites food industry professionals and dietitians to board a bus in Winnipeg and drive across the province.

‘Campers’ begin by listening to local scientists talk about soil, and soil health. They then travel to farms and meet beekeepers and bison ranchers. They eat lunch in a machine shed, ride in a combine and visit a grain elevator.

They also meet farmers face to face.

“It’s really about the farmers and their stories,” said Pruden. “These are just hard-working, wonderful humans who are growing our food… it’s so impactful.

“I’m just always blown away about how our farmers support the program by stopping in harvest to open up their farms and share their stories,” she added. “It’s a truly life-changing experience for our campers.”

She has also hosted a spring camp in Winnipeg where campers bred canola plants or, as campers exclaimed, performed “plant sex.”

The idea was to give dietitians and other food folk an experience while breaking down complex information for them to absorb.

They want to be right and give good advice, said Pruden. It takes confidence for dietitians and food writers to speak knowledgeably about agriculture, GMOs, pesticides and other topics ‘eaters’ want to understand.

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“Our priority is certainly to restore full trade and have all Canadian exporters included in that trade and we will keep working on this file until full trade is restored,” Jim Everson said during a webinar April 28 updating canola issues, including trade with China.

In March 2019 permits allowing Canada’s two biggest grain companies — Richardson International and Viterra — to export canola seed to China were suspended by the Chinese government.

China claimed Canadian canola seed was contaminated with blackleg (disease) and weed seeds — an allegation the Canadian Food Inspection Agency claimed had no merit.

It’s widely believed China’s actions were designed to punish Canada for its December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, vice-president of Chinese technology firm Huawei, at the United States’ request.

China had been Canada’s best canola seed customer having imported 4.8 million tonnes worth $2.7 billion in 2017-18.

Since then canola seed exports to China are about 30 per cent of what they had been, Everson said.

While seed sales have suffered Canada continues to export canola oil and meal to China, Everson said.

Why it matters: Even though Canada’s canola industry, with assistance from the federal government, is working to find new markets and boost sales to existing ones, China remains the world’s largest importer and processor of oilseed.

Canada-China relations have also been strained since China arrested the two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — soon after Meng’s arrest.

Kovrig, is a former Canadian diplomat and Spavor is an entrepreneur specializing in business in North Korea.

“This is not a quick-fix kind of circumstance,” Everson said. “Obviously it has been an issue for over a year…

“It’s a complicated file and goes well beyond the issue of canola and it’s more about the relationship generally between China and Canada for the most part.

“The federal government has made strong efforts to support our industry on this. It is something that requires receptivity on China’s part… ”

Tighter standards

China informed Canada in March that as of April 1, Canadian companies still allowed to export to China would have to supply canola with less than one per cent dockage.

“Those shipments, for the most part, have been at low dockage levels, so that level of trade should be able to continue under these circumstances with China,” Everson said.

Everson said he expects relations to improve because of Dominic Barton’s appointment as Canada’s ambassador to China in September 2019.

“But it’s something that really requires strong bilateral work at the highest political level and we continue to work with our government towards that,” Everson added.

While Canada exports canola to more than 50 countries now, efforts continue to further diversify markets, he said.

“On a year-to-date basis canola exports are up to Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Europe, Pakistan and other markets,” he said. “And our exports to valued traditional exports — Japan, Mexico and the United States remain strong as well.

“We are still also working with, and urging the federal government, to establish a stronger presence, and more regular contact with regulators and policy-makers, particularly in key Asian markets. Diversification of our markets means creating the infrastructure to communicate on a technical and a policy level on a regular basis with those countries, understand what their positions are and the directions they are moving. So we are pushing our government to provide additional resources to be able to do that.”

When asked if the canola council had considered working with other Canadian grain companies to bypass Richardson and Viterra and export more canola seed to China, Everson said: “All the companies are working very closely through the value chain… to provide a united approach to working to restore the market with China and to work with our government.”

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In a world grappling with a global pandemic, the return of their biggest canola seed customer was a shot of good news. But the news report saying that was wrong, dashed their hopes. Instead what they got was another turn of the screw.

What happened instead was China told Canadian officials during a call March 30 that after the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on canola dockage expired March 31, it would continue to import canola seed at current reduced levels, but the allowable dockage would now be less than one per cent, instead of 2.5.

“Over the last year industry has been adjusting because it is conscious of China’s low dockage level restrictions and the majority of our shipments were at the one per cent or below dockage,” a Canadian government official with knowledge of the call, said in an interview March 31.

The MOU was not extended, or renegotiated, much to Canada’s dismay.

“In fact we probably took a small step back,” Canadian Canola Growers Association president and CEO Rick White said in an interview March 31. “There’s just more risk and uncertainty around it now.”

In March 2019 China blocked Richardson International and then Viterra, Canada’s two biggest canola seed exports, from shipping canola to China alleging it contained pests, including weed seeds and a strain of blackleg, a fungal disease that affects canola and rapeseed, which China doesn’t have.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said the complaint was unwarranted.

Since then Canadian canola seed exports to China are 30 per cent of normal and Richardson International and Viterra are still not exporting any canola to China.

China’s actions are widely believed to be aimed at punishing Canada for its December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, vice-president of Chinese technology firm Huawei, at the United States’ request. But dockage has been an irritant for years.

Why it matters: China was Canada’s biggest canola seed customer importing 4.8 million tonnes worth $2.7 billion in 2017- 18. Despite Canada’s efforts, including launching a case before the World Trade Organization, there appears to be no progress in restoring normal canola seed trade.

White and Canola Council of Canada president Jim Everson are troubled that China has rejected the science underlying the MOU signed in 2016. It followed joint studies by Canada and China into the risk dockage posed to China’s rapeseed production.

“Our research has shown that dockage in Canadian canola posed a low risk to Chinese rapeseed and other brassica crops,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said in an email May 10, 2019.

“A dockage study report prepared in December of 2015 concluded that the blackleg risk did not vary significantly with the level of dockage in canola. However, China did not agree with the report’s conclusions. Additional research in response to China’s concerns was initiated in 2016 and completed in late 2018, which has not been shared with China.”

China’s canola capriciousness goes back to 2009 when it first raised concerns about dockage and blackleg (see sidebar).

“It’s over a year now and there’s no end to the unpredictability over this situation,” Everson said in an interview March 31. “Producers are about to head into the field again. There’s no clarity as to the science behind the current trade situation with China. It’s a situation where we need to resolve it and get back to a flow of predictable trade based on trade rules and that hasn’t happened so far.”

Dockage is a specification normally negotiated between sellers and buyers, Everson said, alluding to the fact that the Chinese government, not individual Chinese canola crushers, is dictating less than one per cent.

“Achieving lower dockage levels requires an investment (by grain terminals into cleaning equipment),” he added. “It ought to be a matter of a commercial decision.”

The canola council and Canadian government have been working to diversify Canada’s canola market and increased shipments have been going to places such as the European Union, Pakistan and the Middle East.

“Is the Chinese demand being fully met by other means and mechanisms? Being an economist I look at the total demand picture,” White said. “I don’t think it has changed much. It’s just where the supply is coming from.”

The canola industry has been wondering for weeks what China would do when the MOU ended. Then China called.

“I should be clear it was not a negotiation, it was not a deal,” a government official said. “It was just them outlining what they would permit. They basically said the continuation of Canadian canola trade will be permitted at the reduced level and obviously at (less than) one per cent dockage.”

Canada continues to export small volumes of canola to China, but shipments from Richardson International and Viterra, are blocked, Everson said.

“The key thing is our objective to have all of our exporters to be able to engage in that trade and to have a rules-based predictable situation. We haven’t got that yet. We’re going to continue to work with the Government of Canada to achieve it.”

Everson also wants to be sure China’s dockage rule doesn’t just apply to Canada, which would contravene WTO rules.

Canada launched a complaint against China at the WTO in September 2019. The two countries had their first face-to-face meeting on the issue at the WTO’s offices in Geneva Switzerland Oct. 26, 2019.

While every country has the right under WTO rules to protect its plants from imported pests, countries that restrict imports due to sanitary and phytosanitary concerns must demonstrate the threat is real and take precautionary measures that cause the least disruption to trade.

There’s no guarantee Canada will win, University of Manitoba agricultural economist Ryan Cardwell said in an interview Sept. 12, 2019.

If it did Canada would be allowed to set punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, but given that would result in higher costs for Canadian consumers Canada might opt not to do that, he said.

Last spring Canadian farmers seeded 21 million acres of canola, down eight per cent from 2018, Statistics Canada reported. While that was the lowest since 2016, it still represented the fourth-highest canola area on record.

It’s unclear how the China situation will affect canola plantings this spring, White said.

“There are a few million acres (unharvested) in swaths under snow and that could be good canola acreage, but it may go into something else because with canola everybody wants to, and needs to, seed it early as possible and that’s not conducive to seeding canola after you have harvested in the spring.”

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