Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. It's a pleasure to appear before the Special Committee on Cooperatives on behalf of Farm Credit Canada.
My name is Lyndon Carlson. I'm the senior vice-president of marketing at FCC. With me today is Michael Hoffort, our senior vice-president of portfolio and credit risk.
We appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about the cooperative sector in Canada. Cooperatives have a proud heritage. They have played a major role in Canada in rural communities for more than 150 years. FCC is pleased to be able to partner with cooperatives and their members, who operate in every region in Canada.
From our perspective and observation, the spirit and values cooperatives represent are alive and well in rural Canada. They provide an opportunity for producers to work together towards a shared vision of cooperation and positive business outcomes.
Before I share more with you about the role we play with cooperatives and the many productive partnerships we have established over the years, l'd like to tell you a little bit more about FCC.
FCC is a commercial crown corporation. We offer a combination of financing, insurance, information and learning products, and management software.
Our sole focus is agriculture. We lend to agriculture in all sectors, in all geographic regions, and to all sizes of operations and business models. Our mandate is to ensure that the agriculture industry has ready access to capital to withstand the unique challenges and opportunities facing producers over the long term, through good times and challenging times.
More than 100,000 customers choose to do business with FCC. Our offices are located in a hundred communities across Canada, where we are accessible to customers and close to all aspects of agriculture. Many of these customers are clients of cooperatives.
While the majority of our customers are primary producers, we also have customers whose businesses provide products and services throughout the agriculture value chain.
Many of our customers are cooperatives, and they represent an important part of our lending program. The cooperatives we work with operate in most of the agricultural sectors, including crop inputs, beef, dairy, and agrifood. I would like to highlight a few of them, as follows: Federated Co-operative Limited, United Farmers of Alberta, La Coop fédérée, Co-op Atlantic, and Agropur. These five cooperatives are among the largest cooperatives in Canada, serving millions of Canadians. Combined, FCC has credit facilities in place for these cooperatives in excess of $185 million.
In western Canada, through our partnership with Federated Co-operative Limited, FCC works with retailers in 194 locations to help Federated Co-op provide crop inputs to customers across western Canada.
United Farmers of Alberta provides crop inputs through 38 locations in Saskatchewan and Alberta. UFA has over 120,000 active owners.
In Quebec, La Coop fédérée has 90,000 customers who have access to financing to purchase crop inputs through FCC.
Co-op Atlantic is the second-largest regional cooperative wholesaler in Canada and the largest cooperative in Atlantic Canada. It is owned by more than 100 cooperatively owned businesses across the Atlantic provinces and the Magdalen Islands.
Agropur in Quebec serves more than 3,300 dairy farmers, who produce more than 3 billion litres of milk that is processed annually in 27 plants spread throughout Canada, the United States, and Argentina.
In addition to these larger co-ops, smaller cooperatives also play an essential role in advancing agriculture across the country. Over the years many of these smaller cooperatives have approached FCC in search of the right partner to meet their unique financing needs. We listened, recognized the gap in the marketplace, and responded with a lending approach designed specifically for them and their members. As a result, they and their members have been able to grow and prosper.
A great example of these small cooperatives are those that represent Canadian cattle producers. Cooperative members are able to access financing through FCC to purchase cattle at the point of sale.
I would like to share a few examples of such cooperatives that we finance.
Foothills Cattle Co-op is located in Alberta and has a membership of 318 producers and extends into British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Over the life of its involvement with FCC, $184 million has been advanced to assist its members in purchasing cattle.
Similarly, Athabasca Heifer Co-op, in Nestow, Alberta, has accessed $24 million to assist 65 members.
In Ontario, members of the Eastern Ontario Feeder Cattle Co-operative have accessed $31 million through FCC to advance the cattle operations of its 18 members. These are significant dollars on a per-member basis.
In a little over a decade FCC has provided over $1 billion to members of over 30 partner cooperatives located across Canada, from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, to facilitate member purchases of primarily livestock and crop inputs.
This represents a sample of the network of co-ops that FCC serves across the country. These examples demonstrate there is a clear need among cooperatives and their members for specialized financing. Because agriculture is our sole focus, unlike any other financial institution, we have taken the time to understand the needs of cooperatives big and small and responded to their specific lending needs. We believe these financing options have helped them strengthen and grow their businesses.
Credit unions are also an integral part of the Canadian financial system and continue to have a strong presence in rural Canada. FCC is working actively to develop a closer relationship with the Credit Union Central of Canada, provincial central organizations, and individual credit unions. We currently are part of a national liaison committee that includes credit union representatives from Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The committee shares information, works to resolve issues, and discusses opportunities to work together.
At this point, I would like to respond to the comments made by the Credit Union Central of Canada on July 10 to this committee with respect to FCC's mandate. FCC does not believe the Credit Union Central of Canada's request for a legislated mandate review is necessary. We believe this because we have heard first-hand from our customers and others across the industry that agriculture as a whole benefits from FCC's presence in the market in a competitive role.
FCC's mandate is to ensure that producers have sufficient access to capital to take advantage of the opportunities and withstand challenges over the long run. We are fulfilling our mandate and meeting the needs of our customers. This is why 100,000 customers across Canada choose to do business with us. Customers say they choose FCC because of our industry knowledge, the strong focus on building relationships, and the flexibility we provide. We take time to listen to our customers' ideas and concerns. Finally, FCC products and services are tailored to meet the unique needs of agriculture.
We believe that healthy marketplace competition and a choice of financing options is good for all Canadian farmers. Even those who are not FCC customers tell us that FCC's presence provides producers with more financing choices. They know FCC is a strong and stable financial partner who will support the industry over the long term. In the end, the agriculture industry, other financial institutions, and the Canadian economy benefit.
FCC is proud of the contributions we have made to support the agriculture industry for more than 50 years. We believe the main reason we've experienced success and enjoy strong customer support, growth, and retention is the customer experience we provide. Many of our employees have agriculture backgrounds, and they are passionate about the industry and deeply committed to the success of our customers. As a result, the satisfaction of our customers is second to none. We know they have choices and we must continue to do an outstanding job every day to earn their business.
The Canadian cooperative movement has and will continue to play an important role in rural Canada. FCC is well positioned to provide financing approaches that are flexible, innovative, and adaptable to the evolving needs of cooperatives and their members. As a leading provider of agriculture financing in Canada, FCC is an important and critical financial partner to the agriculture industry. Ultimately, the sustained health of Canadian agriculture and the producers who bring it to life is what is important to FCC. We believe in agriculture, we stand for the success of our customers and producers across Canada, and we stand ready to serve the industry for the long term.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I look forward to any questions.