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Tag Archives co-operative

(Staff photo)
Machinery, Markets

Sollio outlines pandemic recovery plan for food sector

Support sought for automation, digitization, telecommunications

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Ottawa — One of Canada’s largest agri-food companies has laid out a five-point industry recovery plan for federal politicians to consider. During a meeting Tuesday of the Commons standing committee on finance, the president of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group shared plans to limit consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agrifood supply chain. Sollio employs […] Read more
(ThornloeCheese.com)
Livestock

Gay Lea buys northern Ontario cheesemaker

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Ontario’s first producer of verified-grass-fed butter and cheeses is set to become part of the province’s biggest dairy co-operative. Gay Lea Foods said Monday it has completed a deal to buy Thornloe Cheese from its current owner, Guelph-based dairy genetics firm EastGen, for an undisclosed sum. Thornloe Cheese on its website says the business takes […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Livestock

Agropur to shut Montreal-area ice cream plant

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A Quebec ice cream processing plant absorbed in 2017 by Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative will shut its doors in about 10 months’ time. Agropur Co-operative announced Friday it plans to close the former Les Aliments Lebel plant at Lachute, Que., just northwest of Montreal, in August 2020 and transfer the plant’s operations to other Agropur […] Read more
(CalgaryCoop.com)
Markets

Calgary to step out of Federated Co-op grocery system

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Calgary Co-op’s grocery business plans to get all its goods from suppliers other than Federated Co-operatives (FCL) starting in April next year. Saskatoon-based FCL said Thursday it had received notice from Calgary Co-operative Association that it would “discontinue the procurement of all products for their grocery stores from FCL” at that time. The Saskatoon StarPhoenix […] Read more
(Video screengrabs from Exceldor.ca and Grannys.ca via YouTube)
Livestock

Poultry co-ops Exceldor, Granny’s to merge

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Quebec poultry co-operative Exceldor is expanding its westward reach through a merger deal with Manitoba-based Granny’s Poultry Co-operative. The two co-ops announced the combination Wednesday, noting it’s already been approved by Granny’s producer members in a “unanimous” vote taken in May, and by the federal Competition Bureau in a decision last month. “The main objective […] Read more
The AGRIS Co-operative outlet where Richard Tanner gets his crop inputs in Glencoe, Ont.
News

Principles still guide Ontario co-ops today

Co-operatives offer an alternative to for-profit business models and allow owner-members to focus more on community

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The St-Albert Cheese Co-op on the South Nation River in eastern Ontario will mark its 125th anniversary next year, setting it out as an example of how co-operatives can find and sustain long-term success. For St-Albert and about 25 other farmer-owned co-ops active in Ontario, several factors rise to the top when looking at the […] Read more
Private grain handler Minn-Kota Ag Products has been setting up a new shuttle facility at Barney, N.D., about 80 km south of Fargo. (MKAP.com)
Crops

U.S. grain firms set up co-ops in tax law’s wake

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Chicago | Reuters — U.S. agricultural merchants are scrambling to register themselves as cooperatives after a blunder in the country’s new tax law gave farmers a tax break for selling grains to co-ops rather than private firms. Private crop handlers — including the “big four” merchants Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus — […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Crops

U.S. Congress near deal on tax law’s impact on grain market

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Washington | Reuters — U.S. lawmakers are close to resolving a problem with the new federal tax law that gives grain co-operatives an unintended market edge over private companies, but have had a hard time getting agreement among members of the farm sector, a Republican senator said Thursday. A provision in the Republican tax overhaul […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Crops

Rush on to reverse U.S. tax boon for ag co-ops

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Chicago | Reuters — Republican U.S. senators are working with some of the world’s biggest agricultural merchants to undo a last-minute provision in the tax overhaul that threatens to distort the grains market and starve private firms of corn, soy and wheat supplies. It was included during final revisions of the tax bill that passed […] Read more
CHS Inc., the biggest farm co-operative in the U.S., is seen gaining a competitive edge against private and publicly-traded grain firms from changes to tax law affecting sales of U.S. farmers’ crops and livestock. (CHS Inc. photo)
Crops, Markets

Major U.S. grain firms fear harm from new tax law

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Chicago | Reuters — The new U.S. tax law is poised to drive more control over the nation’s grain supply to farmer-owned co-operatives, provoking concern among ethanol producers and privately run grain handlers that they could be squeezed out of the competition to buy crops. Until now, the co-operatives, private companies and publicly traded firms […] Read more

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