Farmer’s Business Network Inc. (FBN®), San Carlos, Calif., the direct-to-farm ag tech platform and farmer network, has announced the acquisition of Professional Ag Distribution Inc. (Pro Ag), Langley Township, B.C., a specialty fertilizer manufacturer and retailer for the horticulture and specialty markets, as it moves to meet the needs of specialty crop farmers. Pro Ag provides a long list of liquid specialty fertilizers as well as crop protection products and industrial solutions, which include de-icers.
“FBN has always been a champion of greater choice for farmers and with this acquisition we’ll expand our industry-leading solutions to specialty crops – from tree nuts to leaf vegetables to berries and everything in between,” said Tom Staples, President, FBN Direct®, Global. “Pro Ag’s unique curated nutrition model ensures growers gain the highest amount of ROI with minimal use of inputs, which is great for farm incomes and the environment.”
Pro Ag is available immediately to specialty growers in Canada, and is expected to be more widely available across North America by the 2021 growing season.
The acquisition comes as FBN continues to expand its offerings. FBN announced the acquisition of seed research company Haplotech Inc., Winnipeg, as well as the Canadian canola breeding program and pipeline from San Diego-based Cibus in October 2020 (GM Oct. 30, 2020). It also expanded into Australia through the acquisition of Farmsave Holdings Pty Ltd., an online ag input platform in July 2020 (GM July 24, 2020).
FBN may have reason to start buying up ag input production assets. Canada’s Competition Bureau last February announced that it was investigating allegations that a number of manufacturers and wholesalers of seeds and crop protection products have anti-competitively refused to supply or restricted supply to FBN (GM Feb. 14, 2020). It said it was also investigating whether some of these entities may have engaged in coordinated behavior against FBN.
And in January, an antitrust claim was lodged in federal court against crop input producers and wholesalers/retailers, alleging that these companies are violating state and federal antitrust laws through a coordinated boycott of e-commerce sales platforms like FBN (GM Jan. 15, p. 1). Attorneys for plaintiff Barbara Piper, a farmer’s widow who oversees her deceased husband’s estate, have asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois to certify the case as a class action. FBN is not a party to the litigation and had no comment on the case.