The company last year opened up a high-speed flax line at its pulse and special crops site at Richardson, Sask., just southeast of Regina — and it has now moved to focus “100 per cent” on flax at that site and completed a list of upgrades to that effect.

Scoular announced Sept. 7 it now has three processing lines at Richardson dedicated to flax, effectively doubling its capacity — and has boosted its flax-specific storage there to 280,000 bushels.

Robert Deraas, Scoular’s general manager for flax, said in a blog post that the upgrades also include new “state-of-the art equipment that enables the site to meet the highest level of food safety standards.”

The plant, he said, is Global Food Safety Initiative-certified, benchmarked to the FSSC 22000 standard, and also holds organic certification. It can produce whole and milled brown or golden flax for applications such as breads, snacks, oils, supplements, pet foods and feed.

Plus, he said, the Richardson plant’s outbound loading for both truck and rail have been upgraded to improve speed and efficiency and thus “more quickly meet end-user needs.”

‘Growth goals’

The improvements at Richardson, he said, follow Scoular’s decision earlier this year to exit the pulse business, “enabling our company to focus 100 per cent on flax at the site and provide a reliable supply of flax ingredients for our feed, food and crush customers.”

A Scoular rep said separately via email that the company decided to exit the pulse business as part of its management’s continual company-wide reviews of its investments.

“The health of the pulse business continues to decline and Scoular’s right to win no longer exists within this business,” the company said. “Closing the pulse business allowed us to focus on areas where we are in a better position to achieve our growth goals.”

Pulses and special crops were the point of entry on the Prairies for Omaha-based Scoular in 2015, when it took over that division of Legumex Walker.

An earlier step away from Prairie pulses came in 2020, when Scoular sold its edible bean operations in Manitoba and Minnesota to Cooperative Elevator Co. of Michigan.

That exit now also includes plans to sell two other Scoular sites in Saskatchewan: a pea, bean and chickpea cleaning and splitting plant at Runciman, and a pulse and special crop cleaning and processing plant and elevator at Brooksby, both near Tisdale in the province’s northeast.

The sales of those two sites, either together or separately, are being conducted by open tender and include the buildings and equipment. The Runciman sale also includes the land, while the land at Brooksby is leased from Canadian National Railway.

Trends

As for the company’s flax focus, Deraas said the current trends in that crop “provide good timing for Scoular’s effort.”

Increasing consumer awareness of the health benefits of flaxseed “creates opportunities for growers,” he said, and the Richardson site “will help farmers capitalize on those trends.”

The site’s technology, he said, enables Scoular to deliver “some of the highest purity flax available on the market.”

Scoular’s merchandising team, he said, “got a first-hand look at this season’s crop as we drove North America’s flax growing region this summer,” walking fields and visiting growers from North Dakota’s Red River Valley up across the northern Prairies.

“We saw good to excellent crop stands with average or better seed counts in most fields, signs that the crop is looking good, despite drought conditions,” Deraas said.

“Our prediction is the crop will meet average yields for North America’s main flax-growing regions.”

That said, Canada is on track in 2023 to produce its second-smallest flax crop in almost 70 years.

Statistics Canada recently forecasted this year’s domestic flax crop will come in at 267,900 tonnes, well down from the 473,200 produced in 2022. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Scoular boosts flax processing capacity near Regina appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Scoular Canada on Wednesday announced the opening of its “high-speed” flax line at Richardson, Sask., where it already processes and cleans lentils, peas and canary seed.

The company broke ground on the flax operation last winter as part of a $10 million investment at the site, which also included the recent addition of another pulse crop cleaning line.

“High-speed” refers to the “industry-leading” rate at which the plant can clean flax to the “high purity standards our customers require,” Jeff Vipond, Scoular Canada’s general manager for pulses, seeds, distilling and milling, said via email Wednesday.

That processing rate, he said, “will substantially increase our ability to grow our volumes into the high-quality ingredient space.”

The plant will produce whole and milled flax in the brown and golden categories for use in breads, cereal, bars, snacks and pastas as well as oils, supplements, pet foods and livestock feeds.

The flax plant “incorporates technology that enables it to deliver some of the highest-purity flax available on the market,” Scoular said Wednesday in a release, noting the plant is certified to Global Food Safety Initiative standards and has organic certification also.

Putting up the flax operation at Richardson was a matter of efficiency, Vipond said, as it allows the company to “leverage key personnel and a strong grower base across both sites.”

This week’s opening “coincides with a strong flax market and record-high prices for Canada,” Scoular said, as drought in North America, tight supplies worldwide and demand for pet food and flax oil have supported farmgate prices. Consumer awareness of flax as a non-GMO source of omega-3 fatty acids and fibre, meanwhile, has lifted demand.

Omaha-based Scoular dates back to 1892 but has been in Canada since 2015, when it took over the pulse and special crops division of Legumex Walker.

Its space in Canada remains mainly in the West, where it has offices at Calgary and Saskatoon, processing plants at Winkler and St. Jean Baptiste, Man. and Saskatoon and Tisdale, Sask., and grain handling sites at Brooksby, Sask. and Petersfield, Man. plus a transload site near Calgary. In the East, it has two warehouses in southwestern Ontario and one in New Brunswick.

The company in 2020 expanded its Winkler sunflower plant when it moved its Winnipeg birdseed operations there. That year it also stepped out of the Prairie edible bean business, selling the former Roy Legumex processing plants at Plum Coulee and Morden, Man. to a Michigan bean grower co-operative. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Scoular fires up flax processing near Regina appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Omaha-based, privately-held grain firm announced Thursday it has made a deal with Martin Farming — which operates at Paris, just northwest of Brantford — that will direct grain to Martin’s new 22,000-tonne-capacity elevator.

The agreement “allows Scoular to buy directly from Ontario producers and Martin Farming to store and handle the grain,” Scoular said in a release.

Scoular’s direct presence in Canada is so far mainly in the West, with processing plants and elevators in Manitoba and Saskatchewan plus offices in Saskatoon and Calgary, from which it deals in Canadian pulses, flax, sunflowers, wheat, canola, barley, corn and soybeans.

The 128-year-old U.S. company made its first major move into the Canadian market just in 2015, when it bought the special crops division of Winnipeg-based Legumex Walker.

“This agreement is a milestone for Scoular as we continue to grow in the Ontario market,” Scoular trade unit manager Garrett Timmons said in Thursday’s release.

Martin Farming, owned by Kris Martin, leases and sharecrops on several farms in southwestern Ontario’s Brant County region, where he also operates Grain Care, a grain freight business.

“We are excited to partner with a trusted company like Scoular to serve producers in southwestern Ontario,” Martin said in Scoular’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Southwestern Ontario elevator to handle Scoular grain appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Deraas, director of the Scoular Co.’s sunflower and bird food division, explained Wednesday at CropConnect in Winnipeg that the majority of Canadian sunflowers are grown for oil purposes.

Increases in demand are driven largely by health-conscious consumers who use sunflower oil for cooking. Deraas noted the Asia-Pacific region “dominates” the global sunflower market, totaling 40 per cent of demand.

During the 2018-19 marketing year, almost 56 million tonnes of sunflowers were produced globally, with carryout stocks totaling just below four million tonnes.

For the coming year, carryout stocks are expected to decrease by about 20 per cent due to increased export demand from China and India. Global production is forecast at just over 58 million tonnes.

Deraas said the 2018-19 growing season was a “record-high production year,” but tight carryout stocks will support prices. The tight stocks-to-use ratio will buoy prices into 2020.

“That’s music,” he said. “You don’t get too many technical aspects like that.”

Planted acres for both confection and oilseeds in North America have decreased steadily over the past two decades, but increases in yields have more than made up for that loss.

Deraas credited the increases in yields to “particular farming practices,” as sunflowers do not have the same options for pest control as other crops.

— Marlo Glass reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

The post Strong demand supports sunflowers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Cooperative Elevator Co., which is owned by over 1,100 U.S. farmers and operates mainly in Michigan’s “thumb” northeast of Flint, announced Friday it will buy the bean business for an undisclosed sum.

Scoular’s edible bean business includes the former Roy Legumex processing plants at Plum Coulee and Morden, Man. It also has a plant at St. Hilaire, Minn., about 130 km south of the Manitoba border.

Also included in the deal are Scoular’s receiving stations at Grafton and Garske, N.D., both of which are about 90 km south of the Manitoba border.

The sale will allow Cooperative to expand its geographic footprint, while also allowing Scoular to focus on its other core businesses, the companies said.

Scoular bought the edible bean business in 2015, paying $94 million for the special crops division of Winnipeg’s Legumex Walker as the latter company wound down operations.

Cooperative is based at Pigeon, Mich., about 160 km northwest of Sarnia, Ont. It has 11 locations in Michigan and one in North Dakota.

The post Scoular to sell edible bean business appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In November 2018, some Manitoba sunflower crops were late to come off the field. A cold and rainy fall delayed the Prairie harvest, lowered average yields and impacted the overall size of the seed. In total, 57,300 tonnes of sunflower seed were produced in 2018.

Sunflower producers also weathered the Spitz sunflower seed plant shutdown in Alberta by finding other buyers for confectionary seed, mostly south of the border.

However, over two-thirds of all sunflowers grown in Western Canada were oil sunflowers, which reflected a shift away from previous emphasis on confectionary seeds.

Although producers are expected to maintain the same acreage for sunflowers as 2018, experts are predicting sunny days ahead.

“I’m very optimistic about the business,” said Ben Friesen of Scoular Canada. “Our two plants in Manitoba are kept full and busy.”

Inventory levels were impacted by the Spitz plant shutdown last year, due to the resulting company merger and logistical issues that delayed deliveries to end users. Growers are hesitant to increase their acreage in 2019 given the disruptions of the previous year.

“If you look at it on a crop chart, sunflower seeds will make money” said Friesen. “The bottom line is good.”

John Sandbakken of the National Sunflower Association expects U.S sunflower acreage may increase in 2019 due to attractive stock prices and tightening of inventory left over from previous years. U.S. producers grew about 1.34 million acres of sunflowers in 2018.

— Marlo Glass writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

The post Sunny days seen ahead for sunflower crops appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Over the last 45 days we’ve saw this market spike, we’ll call it a buck a bushel that we’ve seen that increase from where we would typically would expect this market,” said Jeff Vipond, director for peas, canary and lentils with Scoular.

Fababean prices in Western Canada have hit the $7-$10 per bushel range in the last month, according to Vipond. A story by CNS Canada in May quoted fababean prices at the $5.50-$6.50 range, stating they had been around there for the past year.

While fababean production faltered in Canada this year, with only an estimated 96,400 tonnes, down from 99,800 tonnes last year, according to Statistics Canada, the price increase isn’t due to the lower production. Production issues around the world have led buyers to Canada pushing the price higher.

Australia and the U.K. are the major global exporters of fababeans. Australia’s crop has been slashed in half due to the country’s ongoing drought and the U.K. is facing quality issues with its crop. The largest importer of fababeans is Egypt, who has now been forced to find other countries to buy from.

“We’ve seen demand surface from that market that they’re looking to fill in the gaps there, that they’re missing out on due to the Australian and the U.K. issues,” Vipond said. “So it is providing an opportunity for western Canadian growers to participate in a market that’s not always there for us and get some decent values.”

However, Egypt will only buy high-quality fababeans and due to the delayed harvest some of Canada’s fababeans are of lower quality. Vipond said fababeans harvested before the wet and cold weather set in are great quality, while those left sitting in the field are lower quality.

“Something that people need to be aware of is that the price premiums that are being paid are for the high quality product that is still available out there,” Vipond said. “And I would say that I view it, this is going to be a pretty short term opportunity for growers.”

Once harvests in other parts of the world start to come off, Vipond expects the interest for fababeans will drop off early in the New Year.

This situation isn’t surprising, though, as Canadian fababean exports are normally sporadic. According to Vipond, Canadian fababean exports have varied year-to-year from hardly any to 25,000 tonnes.

“It really does fluctuate depending on the quality of those competing regions because they’re not going to come to us first,” Vipond said.

Domestically, fababeans are mostly used for feed as a protein source. There have been pushes in the last few years to use of more fababeans for feed. Vipond said feed fababeans are currently around the same value as feed peas, at $6 per bushel.

With the recent price spike for high-quality fababeans, Vipond has had more producers expressing interest in growing the crop next year — but he is cautioning producers against growing fababeans.

“If Australia has an average crop next year and the U.K. does as well, then our opportunity to participate in many of these markets isn’t going to be there. And we’re going to have to rely on the domestic feed market to utilize fababeans as a protein source,” he said.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

The post Pulse weekly outlook: Prairie fababeans spike on global production issues appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ben Friesen, manager of the sunflowers, flax and bird food division for the Scoular Co. in Winkler, said although only a few samples have come in, what he’s seen so far is promising.

Sunflower growers normally start harvest in the third or fourth week of October, so Friesen said it’s on schedule.

The heavy precipitation that fell recently should not affect too many plants, he said.

“They’re OK, as long as we don’t get a huge snow that will break them down. The snow that just came along now, it just kind of messed things up a bit. It wasn’t breaking them down or anything. So yeah, they’re surviving pretty good.”

Scoular contracts most of the confection sunflowers in Manitoba and has moved into Alberta with some contracts as well. The company also holds some oilseed contracts.

Prices for oilseed sunflowers are currently in the 22-23 cents/lb. range, he said, while confection sunflowers under contract are in the low 30s.

Prices have been steady for several months, he said, as the industry tries to use up a backlog of supply.

“I wouldn’t say we got too much supply, not in the long run, but it is going to take a while. There’s a bit of a bulk that’s been built up here for the last few months. It needs to go through the system.”

Scoular is trying to work through the buildup and has been running its plant at full capacity, he said.

In recent years, the sunflower market has gradually shifted away from confection into more oilseed types — and that trend continued this year.

Based on insured acreage data from Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., growers seeded 34.6 per cent to confection type sunflowers in 2018. The rest were in oilseed types.

Dane Froese, industry development specialist for oilseeds with Manitoba Agriculture, said he believed yields this year will come in higher than Statistics Canada’s estimates of 1,800 lbs./ac.

StatsCan estimated sunflower growers would harvest 58,000 tonnes from 70,000 seeded acres this year.

Froese said the key sunflower-growing area, south of the Trans-Canada Highway, was lucky with weather for the most part and he expected the recent precipitation would not have a significant effect.

“So that could work out well in our favour and we could see yields higher than StatsCan reports, but this has yet to be determined as the harvest moves on a little further.”

Few disease issues were reported this year, he added, and most of the crop standing in fields should do OK. Desiccated sunflowers could be more susceptible to breakage but that hasn’t yet been reported as a major problem.

On the marketing side, Froese said the closure of the Spitz plant at Bow Island, Alta., earlier this year means almost all sunflower seeds grown in Canada are sold into the U.S., both confection and oil types.

StatsCan’s estimated 2018 production of 58,400 tonnes, represents at 1.4 per cent increase from 2017 production of 57,600 tonnes.

The previous five-year average for sunflower production is 57,540 tonnes, but removing the huge crop of 72,600 tonnes in 2015, the four-year average is 53,775 tonnes.

Of 2018 production, Manitoba is expected to have 50,200 tonnes of the total, Saskatchewan 3,500 tonnes and Alberta 3,600.

Outside of the Prairies, Quebec is expected to produce 400 tonnes.

— Terry Fries writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow CNS Canada at @CNSCanada on Twitter.

The post Sunflower production seen beating StatsCan estimates appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Because of the plant closure there’s quite a bit of delay in delivery of the ’17 crop. So it’s discouraged quite a few guys from growing more (sunflowers),” said Ben Friesen, senior market manager for Scoular Canada.

PepsiCo in February announced it will close its Spitz sunflower seed processing plant at Bow Island, Alta. later this year. While the company said it would continue to buy confectionary sunflowers in Canada, due to the closure they are currently delayed on deliveries and many farmers have had to hold onto last year’s crop.

PepsiCo is “still buying, will continue to buy, but they’re going to be diverting it to different processing facilities in the U.S. It’s going to be a year where it’s probably caused a bit of confusion and a bit of a downturn on the confection side of sunflowers,” Friesen said.

In Statistics Canada’s principal field crop areas report released last month, the agency predicted a 30.8 per cent drop in Canadian sunflower acres; the majority of acres are grown in Manitoba. From information gathered in surveys completed in March, Statistics Canada predicted acreage would drop to 45,000 acres from 65,000.

The prediction doesn’t surprise Friesen. Given the Bow Island plant closure and what he has heard from producers, he expects confection sunflower acreage to drop. However, the plant closure isn’t affecting oilseed sunflowers, so he doesn’t expect to see an acreage drop for those.

At the National Sunflower Association of Canada, observers are more optimistic and predict acres to stay flat at around 65,000.

“It’s still a little bit early to tell just because we’re in the midst of planting and with the dry weather that could also potentially change some growers thoughts on sunflowers,” said NSAC executive director Darcelle Graham.

According to Graham, sunflower planting started the second week in May in Manitoba and is on schedule. Sunflowers do well in a drier climate but, like most crops, require timely rains.

Both Graham and Friesen are hopeful that next year could see a rebound in sunflower acres. Last year acreage dropped by 7.1 per cent as large carryover stocks from previous years held producers back from planting sunflowers.

“I know that supply is starting to dwindle so we’re hoping this year with flat acres that we’ll see increased acres next year,” Graham said.

Sunflowers still give producers a good payout and Friesen is hoping producers are willing to return to growing the crop next year.

“I’m planning and hoping for our facility and everything that we can get back much more into a positive note for the growers for next year to get them out of the delayed procedure. Like it’s a normal delivery crop again for the future.”

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @AshleyMR1993 on Twitter.

The post Manitoba sunflower acreage set to drop appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“There’s no big hurrahs right now on flax… I hate to say it, I’m a very optimistic type of person, but it’s kind of a flat market right now,” said Ben Friesen, senior market manager at Scoular Special Crops.

For the past year the flax market has been pretty steady with no big changes, according to Friesen. Brown flax has hung around the $12.50-$13.50 per bushel range.

At Ilta Grain, senior commodity trader Mike Allaire said they have been buying flax at prices even lower than that over the last year.

Current bids, he said, are around the $11.50-$12 per bushel range, with bids on average falling around $12-$12.50 per bushel for the past year. However, he doesn’t remember buying any flax in the last year for more than $12.25 per bushel.

The low prices and flat market are due to loss of market share overseas. The Black Sea region has upped its production of all crops, including flax, and is undercutting Canada’s prices in the Chinese and European markets.

“It’s just a lot cheaper to ship from (the Black Sea), freight-wise, and they’re happy with quality as well. So that’s taking away from us,” Allaire said.

Last year’s crop was one of the best Allaire has seen, quality-wise, but as a trader he just hasn’t been able to beat the prices at which other countries are selling flax.

“We’re (exporting) a little bit more to the U.S. this year because of their small crop. But the unfortunate thing about it is that we probably have the best flax quality I’ve ever seen in my life and we’re not able to export it overseas.”

The outlook for principal field crops released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on Feb. 16 predicted flaxseed prices will be between $12 and $12.75 per bushel for 2018. Flax acres are expected to decrease from 1,040,300 in 2017 to 1,037,800 this year.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s prediction doesn’t surprise Friesen, who expects to see a slight dip in flax acres.

“I do believe that they will, due to different reasons… I don’t know if (acres will drop) terribly significantly but they will probably slack off a bit.”

Neither Scoular nor Ilta have new-crop pricing out yet for flax. Allaire hasn’t heard any inquiries yet from grain buyers with Ilta about flax prices.

Overall, it has been a bleak year so far for the Canadian flax industry. In January the Flax Council of Canada shut its physical office in Winnipeg, saying it would continue to operate online with a single part-time employee.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @AshleyMR1993 on Twitter.

The post Prairie flax market flat, acres set to decline appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.