GW Commodities Offers Farmers Another Option

Great Western Railway is branching out into the commodities business.

GWR’s focus has been on trying to recapture grain and freight traffic back to their rail line.

General Manager Andrew Glastetter says they’ve seen a lot of grain move up to the main lines to the big grain elevators over the years.

He notes some of the big buyers that would like to access grain off their line are not necessarily in the business of dealing directly with the producer anymore and that’s where GW Commodities fits in.

“We can be the party that’s out working in the community and buying the grain off local producers getting it graded at the origin. Getting the train put together and selling it as one block to some of these larger companies; perhaps selling them right at the trackside at Vancouver or at the vessel at Thunder Bay.”

He says this will once again give producers the opportunity to deliver grain to their local elevator instead of having to drive 50 or 60 miles up to the main line.

“They can get more trucks to the elevator per day than they have in the past. We’ve had some producers that have told us that for every one truck it takes to drive up to the main line and back, they can do eight deliveries to the local elevator.”

GW Commodities is talking with producers about the plan during their Grading Day Events with Intertek graders this week in Frontier, Admiral, and LaFleche.