News Release
For Immediate Release
The Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative plans to cease operations
April 27, 2020
SARNIA, Ontario – The Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative (CSPC) was an Ontario farmer-owned co-operative that strived to develop new markets and business opportunities for agricultural crop residues. CSPC was successful in developing a business model for the aggregation, transportation and storage of corn stover and wheat straw and was validated with field demonstrations. An Offering Statement was prepared and 118 growers signed committing more than 30,000 acres of biomass. This work was accomplished with financial support from government through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The CSPC Board of Directors has decided to cease operations in order to mitigate ongoing expenses and costs. The co-operative has purchased back all investments made by farmers including the membership shares.
“It was always an important objective for the Board to protect the farmer investment in this co-operative and we are proud of the fact that we accomplished so much and were still able to return 100{a3af51aab6bb9e38a5c56209b8f066f2008867aae1c25ac32762e580d99c6c6c} of the farmer investment,” stated Dave Park, former President of CSPC.
CSPC has been recognized by numerous farm leadership groups for creating a potential opportunity for their prospective members. CSPC would like to acknowledge the tremendous support it has received from Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) and AGRIS Co-operative.
CSPC also wishes to acknowledge all the local suppliers, volunteers and machinery experts for their support and time to prepare and successfully execute CSPC’s field demonstrations.
CSPC strongly values southwestern Ontario’s community support throughout the duration of this project and the knowledge from this is being retained by BIC for future reference and support of future opportunities.
As the future unfolds there will be several opportunities for agriculture biomass from cereals, corn, hemp and other crops to play a role in building the bioeconomy and circular economy.
For more information please contact:
Jim Campbell
General Manager,
AGRIS Co-operative
Email: jimc@agris.coop