Alberta Wheat Pool

Alberta Wheat Pool

The Alberta Wheat Pool was chartered under the Alberta Cooperatives Act on August 17, 1923 under the name, Alberta Cooperative Wheat Producers Limited. The company was set up as a voluntary cooperative, owned and controlled by its members, in an effort to stabilize wheat prices. The first annual meeting was held in November of 1923 and the first elected chairman of the Board of Directors was Henry Wise Wood, who remained in that position until 1936. In 1924, the Alberta Wheat Pool set up a central selling agency in partnership with the Manitoba and Saskatchewan Wheat Pools that was called the Canadian Cooperative Wheat Producers Limited which was also known as the Canadian Wheat Pool. The first Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevators were built in 1925 and in 1926 Alberta Pool Elevators was incorporated as a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the Alberta Cooperative Wheat Producers Limited. In 1929 the Alberta Wheat Pool Act was passed and the name was officially changed to Alberta Wheat Pool. In 1929 a drought devastated the wheat market and the Alberta Wheat Pool incurred a $5.6 million deficit. The Alberta government covered the Alberta Wheat Pool losses with a loan which Alberta Wheat Pool repaid by 1947. In 1957 a seed division was established and in 1965 Alberta Wheat Pool started distributing fertilizer. Alberta Pool Elevators was liquidated in 1977 and all liabilities and assets were taken over by the Alberta Wheat Pool. The Alberta Wheat Pool became one of the largest grain operating cooperatives in Canada, handling about two-thirds of Alberta's grain exports, and it also enabled farmers to bargain collectively with grain buyers and ensured them a voice in the formation of national grain-marketing policies. In 1998 the Alberta Wheat Pool merged with Manitoba Pool Elevators to create Agricore.