World Grain - November 2013 - 121

WORLD GRAIN ARCHIVE

1993
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
(ADM) and Louis Dreyfus Corp.
have reached an agreement to
establish a joint venture under
which ADM will assume operational control of most of the U.S.
grain elevators owned by Louis
Dreyfus Corp.
In effect, Louis Dreyfus has
elected to withdraw from domestic grain merchandising in the
United States while maintaining
an active, if not an increased, role
in world trading in grain, including exporting from the United
States. Its grain headquarters will
continue in Wilton, Connecticut,
under the direction of Bruce Ritter, executive vice-president of
Louis Dreyfus Corp. The Portland, Oregon, U.S. office also will
continue, but its offices in Kansas
City, Missouri, and other interior
points will be closed.
Included in the joint venture
transaction were 46 facilities in the
United States, representing all of
Dreyfus' elevators except an export facility in Portland, its export
elevator at Pascagoula, Mississippi,
and a barge-loading facility on the
Snake River in Washington State.
Facilities in Mexico and Canada
also were not included, with Louis
Dreyfus continuing to operate its
large export grain elevator at Port
Cartier, Quebec.
Grain storage capacity of Louis
Dreyfus Corp. totals 2.1 million
tonnes, according to the company,
including 12 terminal elevators,
two port facilities, nine river facilities, three sub-terminals and 23
country elevators.
On Sept. 17, a Canadian federal
court denied the government's
request to stay an earlier ruling
that restored the Canadian Wheat
Board's monopoly over barley ex-

ports and domestic sales of malting barley.
The earlier ruling, which was
made by Federal Judge Marshall
Rothstein, overturned a government decision to enable farmers
and companies to sell barley directly to domestic maltsters of
U.S. customers.
The government had sought the
stay of the ruling to allow farmers
and companies that had entered into
contracts to sell barley to the U.S. or
domestic maltsters to complete their
sales without working through the
CWB, pending the outcome of an
appeal. The government will press
for an appeal and continue to look
for ways to safeguard sales made
prior to the ruling.

2003
Chris Lyddon
joined the World
Grain team this
month as our
European
editor. Based in the
U.K.,
Chris
has reported on
Lyddon
grains for many
years, including in his position as
senior grains reporter, Knight-Ridder Financial News, and as commodities correspondent for Reuters
news agency.
Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government contracted with Australia's single-desk wheat exporter
to buy wheat earlier this year at
a price more than 95% above the
U.S. price at the time, raising
questions about the reason for the
large discrepancy.
Peter McBride, a spokesman for
AWB, said that compared with other wheat contracts, the prices "may
seem a bit high," but they included
demurrage, shrinkage, a reflection
of market conditions at the time and

inland transport from the port of
Umm Qasr.
U.S. Wheat Associates President Alan Tracy said the January
contract was "contrary to common sense," even under a situation where U.S. wheat had been
excluded. Tracy said that "even if
the price included an international
shipping cost of $20 per tonne,
war insurance of $10 per tonne
and inland shipping of perhaps
another $20 per tonne, the €280
price paid left room for speculation on what happened to the
extra money."
The deal also raises questions
about the prices Iraq has been paying for Australian wheat since the
U.S.-led coalition provisional government took control, Tracy said.
In September, AWB said the new
Iraqi government had agreed to buy
800,000 tonnes of wheat under a remaining OFF contract. Tracy called
on the AWB to clear the air on the
issue, particularly because the contracts were completed under the
OFF program.
Monsanto announced that it
will exit from its European cereal
seed business, saying that growth
expected to come from the introduction of hybrid wheat seeds has
failed to materialize.
In addition to its European headquarters site, located in Trumpington, Cambridge, U.K., breeding stations in France, Germany
and the Czech Republic will also
be affected.
Monsanto's Northern European
Region crop protection and rapeseed business is to be reorganized,
with the intention for this business
to move to another location in the
Cambridge area.
Monsanto will remain in the U.K.
as a streamlined crop protection and
rapeseed business.

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