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Canadian firm sows the seeds in China

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-12 14:32

Q: What do you think is your challenge in this new market?

A: In China, there are about 700 million farmers. It is very difficult to communicate with such a huge population while the population of farmers in North America is relatively small.

China is going through changes. More and more people coming from the countryside to the cities, and over time, the farming population will come down. In that time, there may have to be an agriculture revolution in China. In order to enhance the agricultural efficiency, China needs to move farming to the big scale, and be able to use auto-machines, so as to upgrade the production efficiency. In that way, we will have fewer farmers to communicate with, and we are able to bring our technology and efficiency to the farming population.

Another challenge is environment, but it also means opportunity. How we can support the government policy? For example, the government wants more efficient food production because of food inflation.

We need to make sure that we understand these challenges.

Q: There are already domestic fertilizer companies that have the lion's share of the market. What's your competitive edge in the Chinese market?

A: The way we can get a piece of cake is by offering some products and services they do not have today. We can help them access to another country very efficiently. We have lots of experience working with farmers and increasing the production efficiency.

We are not just a fertilizer company but we also buy chemicals from China to ship to America today. Our advantage on potash is a very big advantage that Chinese companies do not have.

Another advantage is we operate across the entire supply chain or value chain of fertilizer supply. We go all the way to mining, production, distribution and retail. We sell directly to farmers, so we are able to get feedback from farmers. We are able to tailor our products and services more effectively and be more competitive. In the short term the farmers make a lot of money, and in the long term the environment is helped.

There are many slow release products. But there is no comparison to ours as no one has the same product in China today

Chinese fertilizer companies tend to be fragmented. That's their historical development. In the past, they were separated into distribution or production or sales to farmers. In China today, there is no company across the whole supply chain.

Q: Are there any specific goals you aim to achieve in China for a specific period of time?

A: The first thing is when people in China think of environmental-friendly fertilizer, they will think of Agrium and Agrium's partnership.

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