Fall
2015
Grains
West
8
BY TAMARA LEIGH
THE
FARMGATE
G3EXPANDSEXPORTPOTENTIAL
PLANS FORANEWTERMINALCOULDOPENUP EASTERNMARKETS
WITH THE REBRANDING OF THE
Canadian Wheat Board complete, G3
Canada Limited has announced expan-
sion plans that will solidify its network
in the East and create a new, more robust
grain-transportation corridor to the West.
The investment, including the devel-
opment of a new grain terminal at Port
Metro Vancouver, is expected to ease the
bottleneck of moving grain to new mar-
kets, including Asia and the Middle East.
“We are currently looking at the feasibil-
ity of building a facility in North Vancou-
ver on a piece of land that we feel is one of
the best, and possibly last, deep-water port
sites in Vancouver,” said Karl Gerrand,
chief executive officer of G3. “If we are
successful, it will be the first new grain
terminal built in Canada since the late
1960s and a complete step change from the
way things are currently done.”
Plans for the terminal include a loop
track with the capacity to have three
130-car unit trains on site at a time and
to unload a unit train in less than six
hours. The new terminal will increase
efficiency, alleviate the current bottleneck
and create capacity for third-party grain
shipments to international markets such
as Saudi Arabia.
To support the new terminal, G3 is
planning to build six to eight inland
terminals in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Locations have yet to be announced.
“Our target throughput for the new
[Vancouver] facility will be six million
tonnes per year. We expect to do four mil-
lion tonnes ourselves, and the other two
million will be available to other compa-
nies,” said Gerrand.
That additional capacity is music to
the ears of Nicole Rogers of Agriprocity, a
company that specializes in matching Ca-
nadian grain growers with contracts from
processors in the Middle East. “For us, the
G3 expansion means we’ll have an exit in
Vancouver,” said Rogers. “With the new
terminal, they’ll probably be more open to
a longer-term handling agreement, some-
thing our buyers in the Gulf are looking
for. The inland grain companies have no
motivation to do that.
“What’s great about having a Gulf entity
own bricks and mortar in Canada is that
[its] focus is the exact same as [that of] our
buyers,” added Rogers.
SALIC, the Saudi Agriculture & Live-
stock Investment Corporation, is a partner
in G3, along with Bunge Canada. Owned
by the Saudi government, SALIC invests
in agricultural, livestock and associated
value chains around the world to help
improve food security.
Construction proceeds at G3’s inland terminal in Bloom, MB.
Photo:G3CanadaLtd.
