Trading Activities

One key feature of the agricultural market-place is that, whilst the nature of the crops we handle from year to year can change significantly, the people we deal with never do. Both our farmer suppliers and our trade buyers are the same from year to year, so it follows, the trading relationships we build need the same longevity. All of our approach to grain marketing reflects this simple reality.

Consumers worry about security of supply, quality control, and competitiveness. For the grower, major concerns are the ability to access value added markets, understanding quality requirements and being treated fairly when the weather intervenes and quality suffers. Sat in the middle it quickly becomes obvious that a good deal has to provide both value and protection to both sides.

We are currently working on projects with major Consumers in the Oat and malting barley markets which are expected to improve and add value to our supply Contracts in coming seasons. Our close ties to Spanish Millers are – this year- influencing the direction we take with wheat variety recommendations. It’s all an endless process but, we find , the closer we work together with people, the more opportunities to add value we discover.

In our trading area, it has long been important to have a strong presence in both domestic and export markets. We invest a great deal of effort in developing direct trading links with Continental end-users. These relationships create not just added value in the short term, but also enable us to anticipate and respond to new opportunities quickly.

Our long standing relationships with our domestic Customers are even more crucial, there is a real sense of partnership in working with a major flour miller, for example, to understand their gristing requirements and guide growers to produce crops that meet these targets.

We view our export and domestic trading as complementary and certainly not antagonistic. Each benefits the other by adding liquidity and thereby encouraging growers to produce more, higher quality product to the benefit of all. By skilfully matching what’s grown to what the Industry requires, we can add whole layers of value at the farm gate.