Grain firm Parrish and Heimbecker aims to keep its now-expanded Prairie elevator network intact against a proposed order from federal antitrust regulators, reports AGCanada.com.
Winnipeg-based, privately-held P+H in September announced a deal to buy all 10 of the primary Prairie grain elevators built by agrifood giant Louis Dreyfus Co. between 1998 and 2003. The two companies have since closed that deal.
However, the federal Competition Bureau in December said it would ask the federal Competition Tribunal to make an order requiring P+H to sell either its own elevator at Moosomin, SK, or the Dreyfus elevator P+H now owns about 60 km east, near Virden, MB.
The Moosomin and Virden elevators “were close competitors due to their proximity” along the Trans-Canada Highway, the bureau said at the time, as the companies “closely monitored each other’s wheat and canola prices and responded to competitive activity from each other by offering farmers better prices.”
Read the full report here.
