What is the standing of Sollio Agriculture within its parent company and have you observed a trend in the sector towards more holistic solutions?
Sollio Cooperative Group has been around for over one century and Sollio Agriculture is one of its three divisions, taking a significative portion of the entire business activity. Crop production products and services (fertilizers, crop protection solutions, seeds, new technologies, etc.), and feed and livestock production (basic ingredients, poultry and hog farming, etc.) are our main pillars of activity, but we also have a presence in the grain merchandizing space.
The holistic approach in agriculture is not necessarily a new trend. Actually, understanding the dynamic of what it takes to produce crops is an interplay between all the various ingredients that a plant would need. As it is hard to separate all these new technologies into traditional buckets, we are offering our members agronomic support related to what input quantities they should use or what seed types are suitable for a certain plot of land.
The agri industry has experienced considerable supply chain disturbances in the past few years. What are the prospects for Sollio and the Canadian industry for this year?
In our estimation, Canada is well positioned to be a leader in agriculture production worldwide. However, the last few years have created some turbulence for the agri industry, especially in relation to the trade barrier activity, the war in Ukraine, supply chain challenges and the reduction in manufacturing capacity linked to labor shortages. Our business has been impacted by all these but, luckily, we now turned that corner. Agriculture is a very resilient industry at its base. The world relies entirely on farmers doing their job and we are here to support them. No matter the challenges, we know that we have a long-lasting role to play.
Advances in mechanization continue to be a key element for improving the efficiency both at farm level and in distribution and supply activities so we remain focused on investing in those areas. The industry is to move from that just-in-time approach to a just-in-case approach, because there are many uncertainties in agriculture.
Achieving sustainability is becoming a mandatory metric in agriculture. At the same time, farmers need to remain profitable during this journey. How can these be aligned?
Today there is a better appreciation for the balance that needs to be found between sustainable agriculture and crop production.
We can take a reasonable approach in terms of sustainable initiatives for agriculture while, at the same time, ensuring food security. Yet, this transition can only happen if it is supported by consistent governmental incentives.
At a company level, we recently committed that our R&D activities will be fully dedicated to sustainable agriculture practices and over 25% of our land is going to be reserved for organic crops. Likewise, by evaluating our overall greenhouse gas emissions and water usage, we plan to build a launching pad to identify targets and reduce those emissions in the future. When it comes to helping our clients across this journey, we are offering several solutions. AgConnexion, for example, is a digital platform where our over 20,000 connected farms can make more profitable business decisions and better position themselves for future traceability requirements or changing regulatory environments. Furthermore, we are currently developing a supply chain solution that would minimize disruptions and ensure better predictability.
How do you perceive the changing consumer demand for meat products? Is there a move towards a plant-based diet?
Since the consumer preferences usually influence the food production activity, we have indeed seen an expanding trend towards plant protein. Canada plays an important role in responding to this increasing demand. At the same time, we believe that livestock production is able to respond to governmental requirements to minimize environmental impact and we see sustainable practices as part of our portfolio in the long-term. Furthermore, buying local is also becoming a powerful movement, so more and more farmers are selling directly to consumers, thus minimizing the time to market and attesting the healthy origin of the food.
The agri sector is facing an aging labor force crisis. How can young people be attracted to agriculture and what role does Sollio's Spring Board for Agricultural Youth have in this context?
In Quebec (and recently in Ontario) we have a yearly award session that recognizes farm businesses who have gone through a successful process of transferring and transitioning their farm to the next generation. All farmers are interested in a better work-life balance and the new technologies (especially robots in dairy farming) are definitely playing a pivotal role in this liberation, ensuring that young people can have a profitable and balanced career in agriculture.
What impact would you like to have on the sector over the next couple of years?
We know that the environment is changing and we are focused on helping farmers navigate through that, providing them with the services and technologies necessary to stay on top. Changes in corporate responsibility requirements, minimizing the impact of agriculture activity, and ensuring food sustainability and security are the key pillars that provide us with orientation on how to support farming companies over the years to come.
