Warburtons Contract

[Wigeon]

Bit late to this thread.

When I started farming I was once told that in many area of the US, farmers have but one solitary buyer for their crop: Cargill.

Imagine that.

I've largely avoided dealing with Frontier ever since.

 

[Hay Hoe Lets Mow]

Bit late to this thread.

When I started farming I was once told that in many area of the US, farmers have but one solitary buyer for their crop: Cargill.

Imagine that.

I've largely avoided dealing with Frontier ever since.

In many parts of France farmers have one buyer too and that is the local co-op. In the UK we are fortunate to have competition and options when either selling grain or buying inputs, if you don't want to deal with Frontier you don't need to, same with Openfield, ADM, Cofco, Glencore, Robin Appel, Barts, GrainCo, Dewing Grain, Saxon, Cefetra, WN Lindsays, Inglis, HAM, Dengie, Banhams, Adams & Howling, United Oilseeds, North Herts, etc etc etc.

I think there are several excellent co-ops (and several poor ones too), and the same can be said of Limited or PLC companies. Just because a business is not a co-op certainly does not make it bad for UK farmers, Olly Harrison seems to be missing this point.

 

[ajd132]

In many parts of France farmers have one buyer too and that is the local co-op. In the UK we are fortunate to have competition and options when either selling grain or buying inputs, if you don't want to deal with Frontier you don't need to, same with Openfield, ADM, Cofco, Glencore, Robin Appel, Barts, GrainCo, Dewing Grain, Saxon, Cefetra, WN Lindsays, Inglis, Adams & Howling, North Herts, etc etc etc.

I think there are several excellent co-ops (and several poor ones too), and the same can be said of Limited or PLC companies. Just because a business is not a co-op certainly does not make it bad for UK farmers, Olly Harrison seems to be missing this point.

Interesting there was some talk about Openfield not making any profit. Directors remuneration on their accounts is interesting..

 

[Hay Hoe Lets Mow]

Expecting all UK consumers to buy all their grain through a "National UK Co-Op" leaves them with one option.... Openfield! In the same way we would not want an industry with Frontier being the only buyer when we sell grain, why should we expect consumers to do the same?! Plenty of UK farmers are not Openfield members.

The is still plenty of competition and space in the UK grain industry, smaller regional businesses, national businesses and businesses that look to specialise in a certain crops (malting barley, organics etc etc). For big national contracts (such as Warburtons), of course consumers will look at merchants with a wider national presence for obvious reasons.

The statement from Warburtons to me looks like something clearly broke between Openfield and Warburtons (we may never know the true details).... I suppose we will just need to wait and see what Frontier bring to party in a couple of years.

 

[homefarm]

Shame. All that time, effort and levy payers money spent in year 2000 - 2003 researching the basis for variation in grain samples and bulks for the benefit of farmers and consumers was evidently totally wasted. I always thought no one would want to believe it. Hey ho there you go. All the reports are attached. Maybe send to you rain buyer chap as a chance to understand the issue of variance within bulks.

Thanks for posting those links, I had not seen all of them before.

My visit was after that, and to be fair they had just built a new state of the art weigh bridge and testing station, where I think they had implemented all the recommendations in those reports.

Of course they knew the variability of the results, but the brand could not admit it.

 

[homefarm]

In many parts of France farmers have one buyer too and that is the local co-op. In the UK we are fortunate to have competition and options when either selling grain or buying inputs, if you don't want to deal with Frontier you don't need to, same with Openfield, ADM, Cofco, Glencore, Robin Appel, Barts, GrainCo, Dewing Grain, Saxon, Cefetra, WN Lindsays, Inglis, HAM, Dengie, Banhams, Adams & Howling, North Herts, etc etc etc.

I think there are several excellent co-ops (and several poor ones too), and the same can be said of Limited or PLC companies. Just because a business is not a co-op certainly does not make it bad for UK farmers, Olly Harrison seems to be missing this point.

This is the point I have been trying to make.

You do not have to like Frontier or even deal with them for them to be good for your business.

Just the fact that Cerestar exists has raised all local feed wheat prices by £5, it was the same in Yorkshire with the ethanol plant.

When they entered the agchem market locally all suppliers prices dropped.

We are members of Openfield and deal with Frontier but have not sold any grain to either one this year.

We have bought and sold from about 10 different suppliers. There is still plenty of choice and competion.

 

[Hindsight]

This is the point I have been trying to make.

You do not have to like Frontier or even deal with them for them to be good for your business.

Just the fact that Cerestar exists has raised all local feed wheat prices by £5, it was the same in Yorkshire with the ethanol plant.

When they entered the agchem market locally all suppliers prices dropped.

We are members of Openfield and deal with Frontier but have not sold any grain to either one this year.

We have bought and sold from about 10 different suppliers. There is still plenty of choice and competion.

My recollection is a little vague so do correct me but if I recall Cerestar existed before Frontier. It was a French/Italian company that was bought by Cargill as part of Cargills corporate plan to build their food sweetener and byproduct supply business. If I recall Cargill dominated the USA market and purchasing Cerestar afforded a dominant position in European market. If I recall the US equivalent of the competition commission eventually allowed the purchase to go ahead - with a hint of reluctance, though I would need to check that out.
For Cargills the location of Cerestar in Manchester was an ideal fit. Allowing access to imported raw material - maize and access to a UK owned subsidiary merchanting business Frontier for supply.

Yes, this investment has helped raise prices and maintained a UK market for grains but it was once owned by a European Company. Now is part of the Cargill hegemony.

I have no axe to grind but just think farmers as the minnows in the food business should always be aware of and think of the larger corporate picture every time they tip a bucket of wheat into a triaxle trailer!!

 

[Hindsight]

Thanks for posting those links, I had not seen all of them before.

My visit was after that, and to be fair they had just built a new state of the art weigh bridge and testing station, where I think they had implemented all the recommendations in those reports.

Of course they knew the variability of the results, but the brand could not admit it.

Hi, hope you find the documents useful I posted them as the research was undertaken in response to consumer and producer discussions in the late 1990s about how to reduce rejections and cost of sampling. As I say I doubted it would ever work or be useful due the inherent adversarial approach often apparent within the supply industry.

And my post was in response to the following qoute from your original post. The research showed exactly that a bulk could be sampled and failed and then sampled again and pass and both samples truly reflect the nature of the bulk. By a bulk I mean any aggregrate number of individual grains more than 2. Thus a bulk is everything from a handful to say 500 tonnes. Within a bulk of a non homogeneous there will be a range around a median. It is the distance from the median of the outliers and the importance in defining the specification of the bulk that defines the importance of the outliers.

''It was impossible for a load rejected today to pass tomrrow if just reloaded on a different lorry.

The locals did exactly this, and as we all know every sample from the same load will have some variation, most loads passed with a new sample''.

Maybe you grain buyer friend might like to review the reports and stats behind it. Or just assume the locals are lifting his leg.

Best wishes,

 

[Martin Holden]

Far too much of UK farmings output moving into too few hands imo.

Frontier gradually buying up lots of smaller input companies, intending to be the major supplier and buyer.

And they don’t care who gets hurt in the process.

Yeh, reading all the social media post on this subject begs the question “what’s really all behind this move”? I’m sure there’s more than meets the eye. Oh well crack on with home baking using UK flour! There’s always an alternative. I’ve cut done on the carbs anyway, so that helps (me) not farmers I appreciate!

 

[JCfarmer]

why is everyone so upset about food imports ? ........... The UK has been importing food for decades (centuries even !) and for all those years it has been produced to a different standard

Absolutely NOTHING has changed

NFU and remoaners are just winding farmers up again


If we ban food imports do we ban cheap electronics cars etc ? ........ did you all want to geo without TV's, iPhone and computers ........... your cars and ractors even

someone, please tell me how they envisage this navana where nothing less than UK standard products can be available in this country please ??


If you believe YOUR product is better then I suggest money and effort are focused on marketing that fact to consumers rather than trying to force law to tell them what they must do !

What a stupid post.
Whats a frigging TV got to do with it!!!? Do Frontier import those aswell and compete with british made tv's or do they take them apart and mix them together???
Ah I bet but not sure we don't make any tv's in this country now!

I'm a brexiteer and not a member of the NFU but I may be joining NFU again soon. We do need a voice.

 

[jonnieboy]

Is this a pointless story ?
a mill has changed their supplier so what ?
As a producer we are free to sell grain to whoever we choose so why can’t the end user chose who to buy off
We can’t grow the wheat they need so they import it ?
perhaps the lesson to learn is don’t as a producer get tied up in one outlet for your sales

 

[JCfarmer]

Is this a pointless story ?
a mill has changed their supplier so what ?
As a producer we are free to sell grain to whoever we choose so why can’t the end user chose who to buy off
We can’t grow the wheat they need so they import it ?
perhaps the lesson to learn is don’t as a producer get tied up in one outlet for your sales

I don't sell just to openfield and never have.

 

[lloyd]

There is no commercial GM wheat varieties available from what I can tell

But is it free from GM contamination?
Might be a marketing opportunity for GM free land ,something
for you to look into.

 

[snarling bee]

One reason not being mentioned on here is that Frontier have an Agronomy service and Openfield do not. Are Warburtons and Frontier looking to tie up the seed, agronomy and grain package in one. Just another move to screw growers? something IME Frontier are good at.

 

[JCfarmer]

I'm not their biggest fan but this comes from the dealings I have with them and a routine lack of effort when it comes to this Warbs contract which explains part of the reason for the change.

There's no doubt they do well by the farmer, that's good to see in the current climate, I think they could do even more when you look at other Coops that we deal with and interact with extensively.

Fair point but I run this account for myself not my employer, views are my own and I'm not here to promote or share companies views whereas you do have the autonomy to promote your business yourself.

No toys thrown, just think some (not many) growers (family are farmers so I do know) that everyone is against them. We continually get the same accusations of bias (hence my comment which got the reaction I expected) when we'd rather buy British than imported. Would happily discuss that aspect too.

Out of interest are you a member or just long term customer of theirs?

I'm a member and a long term customer of Centaur and Openfield.
They are great to deal with, can't say I have a vested interest at all but will not allow the competition unfairly drum them down.
I sell my combinables to at least 2 other buyers.

 

[Lincsman]

But is it free from GM contamination?
Might be a marketing opportunity for GM free land ,something
for you to look into.

This GM wheat... what is its USP?

 

[T Hectares]

One reason not being mentioned on here is that Frontier have an Agronomy service and Openfield do not. Are Warburtons and Frontier looking to tie up the seed, agronomy and grain package in one. Just another move to screw growers? something IME Frontier are good at.

Openfield already supply all the seed into the Warburtons contract, that and never being able to meet the protein specs without foliar N lead me to stop growing for them about 5 years ago, the contract worked well when they took Hereward but with the higher yielding varieties that came after we couldn't make spec.

 

[lloyd]

I'm a member and a long term customer of Centaur and Openfield.
They are great to deal with, can't say I have a vested interest at all but will not allow the competition unfairly drum them down.
I sell my combinables to at least 2 other buyers.

Good luck JC ,Cargill are getting more market control and their interest is
constant supply at the lowest price .
From now on it looks like higher prices will be curtailed at every opportunity.
In 2012 a trader for friendly F said to me farmers are greedy and all we have to
do is press a button on the screen and import it.I pointed out the damaged yields
and bushell weight reductions that knocked £30 quid a ton off but he just laughed it off.He was right about the second part as the price fell £50 a ton over the following
months, however he did get relocated or removed from friendly F as he was losing
them customers with his sense of humour.

Come to think of it he had the same sense of humour as Hedger

 

[lloyd]

This GM wheat... what is its USP?

I dont know what the unique selling point for GM wheat is but
turn it around and there might be one for wheat grown on land
with no GM contamination.

 

[homefarm]

My recollection is a little vague so do correct me but if I recall Cerestar existed before Frontier. It was a French/Italian company that was bought by Cargill as part of Cargills corporate plan to build their food sweetener and byproduct supply business. If I recall Cargill dominated the USA market and purchasing Cerestar afforded a dominant position in European market. If I recall the US equivalent of the competition commission eventually allowed the purchase to go ahead - with a hint of reluctance, though I would need to check that out.
For Cargills the location of Cerestar in Manchester was an ideal fit. Allowing access to imported raw material - maize and access to a UK owned subsidiary merchanting business Frontier for supply.

Yes, this investment has helped raise prices and maintained a UK market for grains but it was once owned by a European Company. Now is part of the Cargill hegemony.

I have no axe to grind but just think farmers as the minnows in the food business should always be aware of and think of the larger corporate picture every time they tip a bucket of wheat into a triaxle trailer!!

You are correct

• 2008: Cargill celebrates opening of wheat processing facility
• 2007: Construction of the new state-of-the-art facility is completed
• 2005: Investment commences to convert the plant from corn milling to wheat
• 2002: Cargill acquired Manchester location through the purchase of Cerestar

It existed before as a imported maize plant and had no impact on the UK grain market.

Cargill with the newly formed Frontier partnership converted it to wheat grown in the UK?

Would this have happened without Cargilll/Frontier?

My guess it would still be importing French Maize.