Ontario Grain Farmer October 2021

Hurst also sees the new container shipping service as an opportunity to diversify transportation and increase export opportunities for high-value agricultural commodities. As for penciling out the new marine shipping option, he says OABA expects the long-term trends of fewer drivers and rising trucking costs to continue, making container transportation another viable avenue for shipping. Canadian grain farmers have been successful in establishing niche, value-added export markets for food grade soybeans. Hurst says the industry can build on that success and that, perhaps, providing buyers with smaller load sizes in shipping containers might be another way to open markets for other high- value commodities such as field peas and lentils. “There’s always been a high aspiration to develop premium markets for Canadian growers, and if our industry continues to collectively move in this direction containers could be the best way to ship out our goods,” he says. Dickerson agrees. “We can expect container shipping to open new opportunities for Ontario grain farmers and create competition in moving goods,” she says. “It’s great to see groups like Hamilton Container Terminal invest in our supply chain, making it more robust for all of us.” GROWTH PLANS After this initial launch year, the company’s future plans extend to the Port of Halifax. “Our goal is to create an economically viable and sustainable all-water service from Hamilton to Halifax and Montreal,” says Saraf. Plans for the 2022 shipping season, expected to begin when the lakes are open in mid-March, include weekly service between Hamilton and Montreal. Regular container shipping service to Halifax is expected in 2023. “Our long-term plans extend to twice-weekly shipments to Montreal and weekly to Halifax,” he says. The company has even calculated their extended environmental impact, expecting to save 500,000 tons of C0 2 over the next 10 years. To learn more about the service, and future bookings, contact Sanjeev Saraf at sanjeev@hcterminal.com . l HAMILTON PORT PARTNERS CONTAINER SHIP SERVICE. PHOTO COURESY THE HAMILTON OSHAWA PORT AUTHORITY. continued from page 6 8