Viterra

Viterra Limited
Company typePrivate
IndustryAgriculture
Founded1993; 31 years ago (1993)
HeadquartersRotterdam, Netherlands
Key people
Kyle Jeworski
Websitewww.viterra.com

Viterra Limited is a Canadian grain handling business, that began as the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.[1] Viterra Inc grew into a global agri-business with operations in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and China. Viterra operated three distinct, inter-related businesses: Grain Handling & Marketing, Agri-Products and Processing, enabling it to generate earnings at various points on the food production chain from field to the table. Following its $6.1-billion acquisition by Glencore International, on 1 January 2013, Viterra was merged with Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc.,[1] headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Viterra's grain handling and marketing operations were located primarily in two of the world's most fertile regions: Western Canada and South Australia. The company owns and operates grain terminals in Western Canada, along with 95% of the grain handling and storage facilities in South Australia. The company ships grain to markets worldwide.[2]

Viterra was also one of the largest agri-product retailers in Canada, with a network of more than 250 retail locations throughout the Prairies. As part of this business, Viterra owned a 34% interest in Canadian Fertilizer Limited CFI, a large urea and ammonia plant.

The company also operated several value-added processing businesses, including wholly owned subsidiaries like Dakota Growers Pasta Company, 21st Century Grain, making it the largest producer of industrial oats in North America, the third largest producer of pasta on the continent, the largest malt producer in Australia, a large producer of canola and a leading producer of animal feed in New Zealand.

At the time of the Glencore's March 2012, back-to-back purchase-and-agreement of Viterra's assets to Agrium, which paved the way for Glencore's purchase of Viterra, in December 2012, Viterra was generating "$2.4-billion in revenue and $244-million in EBITDA" and operated a "network of 258 agri-products retail locations throughout Western Canada and 17 retail locations in Australia. Retail locations offer fertilizer, crop protection products, seed and equipment to growers. Viterra also has a minority interest in a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant in Medicine Hat, Alberta."[3]

  1. ^ a b Hasselback, Drew (13 January 2013). "Viterra's sale to Glencore involved a lot of moving parts". Financial Post. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  2. ^ "SA grain finds more international markets". Stock Journal. 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
  3. ^ In 2006 "Agrium to Acquire Viterra's Agri-Products Business from Glencore". Calgary, Alberta: Agrium. 20 March 2013. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2013.