First of all, thank you so much for inviting us to be here today.
My name is Sheila Kehler. Together with my husband and our children we operate family-owned businesses: CanAgro Exports Inc. and genAG Inc. .
With me today is our daughter, Melissa Vancatasamy, our chief financial officer and co-owner.
I'll start by introducing our business.
CanAgro Exports is the export side of our business. We have 10 employees in Canada and 44 in our dealership in Kazakhstan. We are located in Winkler, Manitoba. We export Canadian and U.S. built farm equipment to Kazakhstan.
We have approximately $25 million in gross sales annually, selling versatile tractors, Amity seeding equipment, MacDon windrowers, Elmer's grain carts and harrows, Valmont irrigation equipment and after-market parts sales. We also sell Bednar tillage equipment built in the Czech Republic, and Worldtrac tractors built in India in the Kazakhstan market.
We're also looking at a joint venture project to manufacture larger tillage and seeding equipment to export to the Chinese farmers who purchase land outside of China, as well as into Kazakhstan, Russia, and possibly other countries.
We're also working with the manufacturing company out of India with respect to Worldtrac tractors. We sell their product in Kazakhstan and are looking to set up local manufacturing and assembly to avoid the value-added tax.
We are also in the design and development stages of building a power unit and chassis to harvest sugar cane in India. This is a project with an Indian sugar company which will design and build the sugar cane thrashing unit that will attach to the power unit we are designing and building in Canada.
GenAG is the Canadian side of our business. We have two locations in Manitoba at present with 40 employees. We are in negotiations to purchase a third location which would then give us access to all of central and southern Manitoba, as well as part of Saskatchewan.
We import Horsch seeding and tillage equipment from Germany through their U.S. location, as well as Grimme and Spudnik potato equipment from Germany and Idaho, and Valmont irrigation equipment from Nebraska, all to sell in Canada.
Along with this, we also sell numerous short lines and after-market parts in Canada.
We have also been approached by the manufacturer of Worldtrac tractors in India to set up local assembly for their product in Manitoba and distribute it across Canada, as well as export it to the northern U.S.A. and Iceland.
We have begun working with Manitoba trade representatives for India on this project.
Some of the issues we face as exporters include timely shipping, rail strikes, shortage of available containers, overload imports around the world, etc.
With regard to financing, we work with only one bank in Kazakhstan which has little available cash, thereby causing us when it comes to cash flow to set terms with our suppliers until the money comes in.
We face issues with currency devaluation in the countries where we work. We also face the issue of the value-added tax which is forcing us to set up local manufacturing and assembly to stay competitive within the market.
When developing trade policies, I would ask that it be considered to allow having more than one passport for business owners exporting to numerous countries. We are prohibited from travel whenever we apply for a new visa for a specific country. The wait time in applying and getting a new visa can be up to three weeks per country.
We have worked with business owners from Europe who have two passports and are able to travel with the one while the other is sent away to obtain a visa.
With regard to government help that is available to us, EDC has been extremely helpful in providing short-term receivables insurance to our suppliers, so that our suppliers can give us terms, usually 180 days from the time of shipment. We need these 180 days to source, ship, assemble, sell, and collect payment in Kazakhstan in order to be able to pay our suppliers. This is critical as banks will not finance inventory that is being exported.
Some of the challenge that we do face with EDC is that it takes a long time to establish a working relationship with EDC. The staff turnover in the underwriting department is frustrating as each new person needs time to understand our business, often time that we as exporters don't have when trying to finish a deal with our customers.
Also, the length of time to access results from EDC is frustrating. Our window of sales opportunity in Kazakhstan is short, and we sometimes miss sales simply because it takes too long to get approval from EDC.
Manitoba Trade and Investment has also been a big help to us and is a large promoter of our business in trade shows around the world, working alongside us promoting Canadian-built, particularly Manitoba-built, equipment. We work with trade commissioners in Kazakhstan, China, and India.
Thank you.