By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Thursday September 17, 2020

Sep 17, 2020 | 9:55 AM

The federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers meeting has been delayed again and will now be held in November.

According to a tweet from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the decision to postpone was to accomodate an October election in Saskatchewan.

It was agreed to change the virtual meeting so all agriculture ministers could attend.

The meeting was originally scheduled for July and was postponed to October.

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Shares in Ag Growth International continue to fall on the Toronto Stock Exchange after a newly developed commercial grain storage bin it manufactured collapsed while being filled at North Vancouver’s Fibreco Export terminal.

The Winnipeg company said the cause and responsibility for the incident last Friday afternoon is not known so it is not unable to determine if any financial damage will result.

Fibreco said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday the bin collapsed due to a structural failure during loading. No one was injured.

The terminal company, owned by a consortium of forestry firms, announced in 2018 it would add bins and other equipment as part of a plan to replace the shipping of wood chips with agricultural products while continuing to export wood pellets.

Ag Growth said the bin that collapsed is part of a new product line it developed for two commercial projects. Fifteen of the bins are located at Fibreco and an additional 20 have been manufactured for another customer but have not yet been commissioned.

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The Chamber of Marine Commerce said demand for wheat, canola and soybeans is pushing grain shipments up by 20 per cent in some of Ontario ports.

The shipping association said between April 1 and Aug. 31, 5.2 million tonnes of grain passed through a key trade corridor, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway.

Thunder Bay Port Authority said the port is on pace to ship more cargo this year than any other single year since 1997, including an increase of one million tonnes of grain compared with this time last year.

The strong grain harvest has been a bright spot as ports recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted supply chains this year.

Overall shipments in the Great Lakes seaway are still down eight per cent compared to this time last year, as iron ore, dry bulk and liquid bulk shipments have all fallen between 10 per cent and 25 per cent.

The Port of Windsor said its shipments fell 18 per cent this spring as the COVID-19 lockdown halted construction but now, grain shipments surging there.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF