Anglia Maltings operates seven malt facilities in the U.K., Poland, and Germany, with combined production capacity of 440,000 metric tonnes.

Privately-owned Richardson, which has operated since 1857, has been interested for 20 years in entering the malting business, but never found the right opportunity until now, CEO Curt Vossen said.

The deal fits Richardson’s strategy of processing the crops it buys from farmers, ranging from canola crushing and canola oil bottling to milling durum and oats, Vossen said.

“Now that we’re a food processor as well as an agricultural company, malting serves a fundamental purpose, it’s a natural fit,” he said in an interview.

Vossen said Richardson will buy European barley for its malting facilities.

He said Richardson will take time to understand the specifics of malting before deciding whether to expand the business.

The deal follows an announcement last week by French agribusiness InVivo of an agreement to acquire Australia-based United Malt in a $1 billion deal to create the world’s largest malt producer.

That deal, to be handled through InVivo’s Malteries Soufflet arm, was first proposed in March but now has approval from United Malt’s board of directors. Approvals from United Malt shareholders and regulators are still pending.

Among United Malt’s other assets in the U.S., Australia and the U.K., that deal would give Soufflet control of Calgary-based Canada Malting, which alone produces about 400,000 tonnes of malt per year.

Winnipeg-based Richardson, which employs over 3,000 people worldwide, handles and processes grain and oilseed crops. In 2021, it acquired Italgrani USA, North America’s largest durum wheat miller.

— Reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Steve Biggar, associate vice-president of fertilizer and energy products for Winnipeg-based Richardson, said it was the right time for the company to launch CirrusX because of new treaters the company has installed to allow liquid products to be applied onto granular fertilizers.

“Over half of our locations have these new treating systems and most of our customers are able to access the technology either at their local site or at a neighbouring Richardson location,” he said.

CirrusX, a liquid product, could be used in combination with granular fertilizers to improve efficiency of the fertilizer and control loss of nitrogen due to volatilization, denitrification and leaching.

Biggar said that Richardson chose a nitrogen stabilizer as its first proprietary crop input because having the new treating equipment made entering the market easy.

“For us it made sense because we have control over the whole supply chain in terms of bringing the material in in totes, hooking those totes up to a treater that is attached to our fertilizer blender and then shipping out the blends to our customers,” he said.

CirrusX is already on the market and available for purchase, but those looking to get their hands on CirrusX will have to go directly to a Richardson Pioneer location. Biggar said CirrusX is a Richardson Pioneer-exclusive product, and the company has no plans to wholesale the product to other retailers.

“Typically, how we would recommend a product like this would be through one of our agronomists or salespeople,” said Biggar.

Currently, there is no plan for Richardson to release a pricing deal for growers who already use their products.

“We have over 100 certified crop advisors who work with customers to develop individual crop plans. We’ll be approaching the market mainly through our own sales and agronomy people.”

Going forward, Richardson will be looking to gradually add to and expand its own line of products.

“We’re looking at other foliar micronutrient products,” said Biggar. “We probably would look at some crop protection products. We’re looking for products that have proven value and a good track record.”

Richardson hopes the launch of CirrusX will help its customers attain the 4R Nutrient Stewardship method to increase crop yields.

Richardson Pioneer, Biggar said, is a “firm supporter” of 4R, a framework meant to help farmers achieve optimal crop production by way of the four R’s: right fertilizer source, right rate, right time and right place.

“We know that growers don’t want to spend any more money on fertilizer than they have to, so having urea that is treated with CirrusX will allow growers to have the right nitrogen source and ensures the nutrients are available at the right time.”

Richardson believes its customers are sustainable growers and world leaders in following best practices when using fertilizer, he said. “We see CirrusX as just another tool to allow growers to increase their efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint.”

— Hannah Polk reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Regina.

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Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, in a joint statement Wednesday, confirmed the decision by Chinese customs officials allowing Richardson International and Viterra to resume canola sales to China.

“We welcome this decision to remove the restrictions and immediately reinstate the two companies to allow them to export Canadian canola seeds,” the ministers said, adding they would “continue to work” with the canola sector to “defend their interests and support their success at home and in markets abroad, including China.”

“This is a positive step forward, restoring full trade in canola with China and ensuring that all Canadian exporters are treated equally by the Chinese administration,” Jim Everson, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said in a separate statement.

“We will continue efforts to nurture and maintain a predictable, rules-based trade environment,” he added, thanking Ng and Bibeau and officials with their departments for their support on the matter.

China in March 2019 had suspended the licenses for Winnipeg-based Richardson and Regina-based Viterra to export canola to China, saying it had found quarantine pests in canola seed deliveries.

The Canola Council noted at the time that no other export customers had made similar complaints. The dispute was widely believed by observers to be a retaliation against Canada for carrying out a U.S. arrest warrant in Vancouver in late 2018 on Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou, over charges of bank and wire fraud.

Wanzhou, the chief financial officer for Huawei, remained in Vancouver under house arrest pending extradition proceedings, up until last September when she reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors allowing her to leave Canada and return to China.

Two Canadians, businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who were arrested and detained in China shortly after Meng’s arrest, were released by Chinese officials right after Meng’s return.

While the bans didn’t affect other Canadian companies’ seed exports, nor did they affect exports of Canadian canola oil or meal, the Canola Council noted the value of exports of Canadian canola seed to China dropped from $2.8 billion in 2018 down to $800 million in 2019, then rose to $1.4 billion in 2020 and $1.8 billion in 2021.

The council has cited estimates putting the cost to the canola industry between $1.54 billion and $2.35 billion from lost sales and lower prices between March 2019 and August 2020 alone.

Canadian trade officials took the issue to the World Trade Organization later in 2019. After bilateral consultations with China at the WTO, however, the global trade body established a panel of its Dispute Settlement Body in July 2021 to resolve the matter.

A DSB panel was formally composed on Nov. 12 last year. Countries including the U.S., European Union, Russia, Australia and Brazil have reserved third-party rights to the dispute, which has yet to be heard by the panel. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The 140-odd workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401, voted Feb. 1-2 on a new proposal from the company after voting 79 per cent in December to reject a previous offer.

The revised offer, which tacks a sixth year onto the deal, was accepted by a vote of 65 per cent, UFCW lead negotiator Chris O’Halloran said in a release.

The workers’ previous contract expired at the end of August 2019; the new six-year deal is retroactive to Sept. 1 that year and runs through to the end of September 2024.

“A 65 per cent acceptance shows that our members thought carefully about what was on the table,” O’Halloran said in UFCW’s release. It “says to the company that we were able to get it done this time, but they are on notice that they need to better right off the bat next time.”

The union’s bargaining committee had recommended in late January that workers vote in favour of the revised deal — and noted that if the second deal were to be rejected, the union would start the process to hold a strike vote.

The new offer moved money from the later years of the previous offer, providing for increases of 2.25 per cent in the first year, 2.75 per cent in the second year, three per cent in the third and 2.5 per cent in each of the following three years. The new deal also provided for increased pension contributions from the company.

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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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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United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401, which represents about 140 workers at the Lethbridge plant, said Monday its members had voted 79 per cent to reject the offer.

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.

Votes were held in Lethbridge Dec. 16 and online Dec. 17, after the company put forward “what they describe as their last best and final offer,” UFCW said Dec. 10.

UFCW spokesperson Chris O’Halloran, in the union’s Dec. 10 notice, said there’s “never as much money in one of these offers as we would like.”

The union said Monday it will now apply to go to mediation, emphasizing that process is meant to help parties “clarify their positions and reach a compromise.”

Mediation would continue for at least two days before the union can ask the provincially appointed mediator to “write out” — that is, provide non-binding recommendations in the event that talks don’t produce a deal.

Once a mediator writes out, UFCW said Dec. 10, a 14-day mandatory cooling-off period follows, during which time the union “will schedule and hold a strike vote.”

That said, the union added Monday it also “will be looking to return to the bargaining table to see if the company will improve their offer.”

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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A 12,000-tonne shipment of feed wheat was delivered to Richardson’s Current River elevator from the company’s facility in Hamilton, Ont.

The wheat was said to be destined for Manitoba feedlots, where drought has cut into local feed supplies.

Thunder Bay elevators typically load out eight million tonnes of grain annually, but records of inbound shipments are non-existent, according to the report.

“Grain production analysts are predicting significant reductions in production on the Prairies due to extreme heat, drought and grasshopper damage,” port officials said, adding this will likely impact port tonnage through the second half of the season, when cargo volumes are “typically driven by harvesting activity.”

Total grain tonnage moved through Thunder Bay in August came in at 566,495 tonnes, marking a three-year low for the month.

Year-to-date shipments of just over four million tonnes were running about a million tonnes behind the 25-year high pace seen in 2021 but were in line with the previous average.

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Winnipeg grain firm Richardson International announced last Tuesday it has bought full ownership of Control Chemical Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

Control Chemical is billed as a specialized manufacturer of environmentally safe drilling fluids and proprietary vegetable oil-based lubricants, used in mining and resource extraction processes such as diamond drilling, horizontal directional drilling and rotary and percussive drilling.

The company’s Matex products include downhole lubricants, specialty polymers, foams, tool lubricants, blast hole stabilizers, thread compounds and non-alcohol freeze control fluids.

Given their capacity to withstand high temperatures, canola oil-based lubricants are “recognized for extending tool lifespan, optimizing production processes, and improving drilling core recovery and pathway stabilization,” Richardson said.

“This partnership will be beneficial to both companies, as historically speaking, Richardson is our largest supplier of crude canola oil,” John MacPhail, Control Chemical’s retiring principal, said in Richardson’s release.

“With petroleum oil prices increasing, we are in a unique position to reach new and more expansive markets for environmentally safe downhole, torque-reducing lubricants.”

For Richardson, which has been a minority shareholder in the company and supplied it with raw ingredients for “over 30” years, the deal marks “a unique opportunity to diversify our business and expand into innovative products derived from the core commodities we handle,” Darrell Sobkow, Richardson’s senior vice-president for processing, food and ingredients said in the same release.

Richardson’s oilseed crush plant at Lethbridge, Alta. will keep on supplying crude canola oil stock for Control Chemical products, which it makes at a 50,000-square foot plant in southeast Calgary and sells worldwide. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Winnipeg company said Thursday it will buy 100 per cent of the shares in Italgrani USA Inc., whose assets include a mill, elevator and Mississippi River barge-loading facility at St. Louis; three grain elevators in northwestern North Dakota; and a commodity trading desk in Minneapolis.

Privately-held Richardson didn’t release a dollar figure for the deal, but said it expects its purchase agreement to close “immediately” after regulatory approvals are received. Richardson said it would also “retain the current workforce” for the St. Louis-based company.

“This acquisition is fully aligned with our long-term strategic goals of diversification, geographic expansion, and an increased presence in food processing — having gone from canola to oats and now to durum processing,” Richardson CEO Curt Vossen said in a release.

“The significant scale of processing capability of the Italgrani plant, combined with origination opportunities and crop inputs retail facilities… will further enhance the services we will be able to offer to our producer customers, both in Canada and the U.S.”

Italgrani in 2018 completed a major expansion at the St. Louis facility, adding an 8,000-hundredweight capacity milling unit that brought its daily processing output to 28,000 cwt of semolina and/or durum flour — which before grinding translates to about 1,800 tonnes of durum wheat.

Italgrani’s North Dakota elevators — which along with durum handle spring wheat, flax, sunflowers, peas and other crops for domestic and export sales — are within relatively short reach for growers in southeastern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba.

Those three elevators, which also include retail crop input facilities, are at Powers Lake, about 90 km south of Estevan, Sask.; Tolley, about 75 km south of Carnduff, Sask.; and Benedict, about 150 km south of Lyleton, Man.

Italgrani, which bills itself as “Italian family-founded and -owned,” is today majority-held by Progetto Grano, a Milan-based holding company that bought its controlling stake in 2006.

Italgrani started out of a Minneapolis office in 1979 and expanded to include the St. Louis mill and elevator by 1987. It bought its Mayco Export grain trading and brokerage subsidiary in 1988 and started investing in North Dakota grain handling space in 1989.

“We are confident that Richardson will understand and nurture the unique culture and business qualities that made Italgrani so successful over the years and will contribute to the further growth of the business,” Progetto Grano CEO Ruggero Benedini said Thursday in Richardson’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The company said Monday it began construction work earlier this month at Carmichael, about 65 km southwest of Swift Current, about three km south of the Trans-Canada Highway on the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline.

Expected to be ready by fall next year, the Carmichael elevator will have 46,000 tonnes of storage capacity with a loop track for handling 175 high cube-style rail cars, “high speed” receiving and loadout, and a “high capacity” grain cleaning system.

Once the new elevator is built, Richardson said, it will start construction on “crop inputs assets” at the site including a high-speed fertilizer blender and a 10,000-square foot warehouse, both to be up and running by fall 2023.

“Richardson has maintained a significant presence and loyal customer base in the southwestern part of the province and will continue to seek opportunities for improving operational efficiencies,” Tom Hamilton, Richardson’s senior vice-president for agribusiness operations, said in a release.

In the same area, Richardson already has a 29,920-tonne capacity elevator at Swift Current; a 19,000-tonne capacity elevator it bought from Viterra in 2013 at Maple Creek, about 70 km west of Carmichael; and a 31,900-tonne capacity elevator it bought from Agricore United in 2007 at Reed Lake, about 50 km east of Swift Current.

“With the addition of the new facility at Carmichael, we look to bridge our historical presence in the area with the realities of meeting our grower customers’ evolving business needs,” Hamilton said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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