World Grain - April 2011 - 14

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Richardson to purchase North East Terminal
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA — Richardson International Limited announced on March 10 that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the North East Terminal grain handling facility in Wadena, Saskatchewan, Canada, along with the crop input facilities at Wadena, Kelvington, Foam Lake and Ponass Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. The agreement is subject to shareholder approval on April 6 and is expected to close on April 13. “We are extremely pleased with this opportunity and the fact that North East Terminal chose Richardson to complete this transaction. We look forward to investing in this facility and adding it to our Richardson Pioneer network of elevators and crop input facilities across Western Canada,” said Curt Vossen, president of Richardson International. “It is a great ﬁt with our existing business. The acquisition will allow us to provide greater service to our customers in northeastern Saskatchewan. It will also support our export sales program and our new canola processing plant in Yorkton.” Upon successful completion of the sale, Richardson plans to invest an additional C$3 million to upgrade and enhance the grain handling and crop input facilities with an aim to improving safety, increasing efﬁciencies and better serve customers. “Richardson is a solid company, a well-established player in the agriculture industry and a strong supporter of the communities in which it does business,” said Garnet Ferguson, general manager of North East Terminal Ltd. “We are conﬁdent that Richardson will ensure continued success for North East Terminal and our producers.”

U.K., Gates Foundation to support ag research
LONDON, ENGLAND and SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S. — The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Feb. 27 a coordinated effort to reduce hunger and poverty in developing countries by supporting agricultural research projects to help small farmers increase their yields and incomes. DFID will contribute $32 million over the next five years to the partnership, and the foundation will provide $70 million. DFID and the foundation will work together to identify the projects, and the foundation’s Agricultural Development initiative will manage them. The collaboration will focus on dealing with the most serious threats to food production in the developing world — such as crop diseases, pests, poor soil quality, and extreme weather — and tackle these threats from multiple angles to develop long-term, sustainable solutions. This co-funding partnership comes as escalating food prices are putting millions at risk of hunger and malnutrition and threatening economic and social stability throughout the world. In January, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s price index hit an all-time high, with prices for everything from rice to maize to sugar to meat surpassing 2008 levels. Through this new collaboration, Cornell University is receiving $40 million to continue its work to develop wheat varieties that are resistant to emerging strains of stem rust disease, such as Ug99, which are spreading out of East Africa and threatening the world’s wheat supply. Because wheat represents approximately 30% of the world’s production of grain crops and nearly half of that production will be harvested in developing countries, protecting wheat supplies is critical to global food security. A second grant of $3 million was awarded to Diagnostics for All (DFA). DFA will develop inexpensive diagnostic tests that small farmers can use to improve the quantity and quality of milk produced by their cows and the safety of cereal grains. The new tests, which will cost only pennies, will check for bovine pregnancy, milk quality and a common toxin found in grain.

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World Grain - April 2011

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