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FTER DECADES IN DECLINE, PRAIRIE GRAIN
elevators are experiencing a development revival. Over
the past two years, every major player in Canadian
grain marketing and transportation has announced significant
investments in building and expanding rail and storage capacity
at their country grain elevators.
The new construction represents hundreds of millions of
dollars of investment in infrastructure, and will help address
capacity issues in the grain supply chain by increasing one-time
storage capacity in Western Canada by more than 450,000
metric tonnes, and doubling rail car loading capacity.
James Mowbray, vice-president, commercial manager, for
Cargill AgHorizons Canada, says the sudden growth has been
triggered by a combination of factors, including changes to
the grain marketing system in Western Canada and a push for
greater efficiency in the rail system.
“When theCanadianWheat Board (CWB) was involved as a
single-deskmarketer, they controlled the pull of grain from the
farmer. In an openmarket, grain can come into the systemat any
time,” explainedMowbray. “Our customers expect us to provide
service in a timely and efficient manner, and that we’ll have a good
amount of storage and transportation under what they bring in.
“At the same time, there’s greater competitiveness with the
railways for different industries moving different cargo. Rail
companies want to get more efficient and productive, and
move larger trains,” he added.
Cargill is focusing its investments on expansion and upgrades
of existing facilities rather than new builds, with an emphasis
on increasing automation and efficiency to help farmers unload
and move grain into rail cars as quickly as possible.
“We don’t believe there’s a physical asset capacity constraint;
our challenge is to move product consistently over the
UP, UP AND AWAY:
Grain elevators are once again becoming a common sight on the Prairies, as grain companies respond to the post-CWB
Western Canadian marketing system.
Fall
2014
grainswest.com
31
BY TAMARA LEIGH • PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF VITERRA AND PARRISH & HEIMBECKER
Feature
A
Elevators go
up,
up,
up!