Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
 |
|
| Industry | Agriculture |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Agricore United |
| Successor | Viterra |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Defunct | 2007 |
| Headquarters | 2625 Victoria Avenue, Regina, Saskatchewan |
|
Key people
|
Mayo Schmidt |
| Products | Grain buying |
|
Number of employees
|
4000 |
The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was a grain handling, agri-food processing and marketing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Pool created a network of marketing alliances in North America and internationally which made it the largest agricultural grain handling operation in the province of Saskatchewan. Before becoming Viterra, SWP had operated 276 retail outlets and more than 100 grain handling and marketing centres. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool operated under the name of AgPro in the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Alberta. Begun as a co-operative in the 1920s, the company became a publicly traded corporation in the 1990s. After the 2007 takeover of its competitor, Winnipeg-based Agricore United, the Pool name was retired. The merged company operated under the name Viterra until 2013, when it was acquired by Glencore International.
Farmers, frustrated in their attempts to win a fair price for their wheat, started to look to various marketing systems between 1900 and 1920. The co-operative style of organizing farm operations was one of them. As early as 1902, farmers banded together as the Territorial Grain Growers' Association. The TGGA split into Alberta Farmers' Association and the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association (SGGA) in 1906. Also established at this time was the farmers' co-operative elevator company called the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC), which later merged into the United Grain Growers. In 1911 the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company was formed.
The SGGA met with the United Farmers of Alberta and United Farmers of Manitoba and formed the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers Ltd. on August 25, 1923. Informally it was known as the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as it collectively helped farmers get a decent price for wheat. The first president was A.J. McPhail and the first elevator was built in Bulyea in 1925 (in the area of Section 36, Township 16, Range 15, W of the 2nd meridian). The Saskatchewan Cooperative Wheat Producers Ltd. bought out the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company in 1926. In 1953 The Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers Ltd. was renamed the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
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