The agricultural arm of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Public Investment Fund is now the largest private investor in grain handler G3 Canada, the descendant of the Canadian Wheat Board, says Reuters. The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC) expanded its holdings by converting promissory notes into stock and buying shares from U.S.-based Bunge Ltd, originally the lead investor.
SALIC now owns 75 percent of G3 Global Holdings, a joint venture with Bunge that bought 50.1 percent of the former Wheat Board in 2015 for $250 million; farmers hold 49.9 percent of G3, a small player in the Canadian market compared to other exporters. Reuters said SALIC “has targeted investments in beef and eight key crops, including wheat,” while the Middle Eastern kingdom curtails crop production. Canada is one of the leading wheat-growing and exporting nations of the world.
Created in 1935, the Wheat Board held a monopoly on the marketing of wheat and barley grown in the western provinces until 2012, when the government let growers decide where to sell their grain. The entity changed its name to CWB and operated as a grain trader. Its assets included terminals and two ships, said the Toronto Globe and Mail.