An international agriculture company is moving to Winnipeg with an aim to buy commodities directly from farmers.

Kevin Brassington, the head of grains and oilseeds for COFCO Agri, a subsidiary of China-based COFCO, says they plan to have a trading office open in Winnipeg by harvest time, with a focus on grains and oilseeds.

"Winnipeg is a historic grain town for Canada," he says, "JRI (Richardson International), G3 Canada... is there, Paterson [Grain] is there, P&H (Parrish and Heimbecker), is there. The hub of the grain industry in Canada is in Winnipeg, and we want to be where the decisions are getting made."

Brassington says their goal is to expand their supply chains to China, while creating efficiency within those chains — which means a goal of dealing directly with the farmer in purchasing.

"For me, we want to get to the farmer. We want to reach out to independents in Canada," he says. "Being a Chinese state-owned company, there might be, let's say, a little hesitation from the farmers in Canada, but for me, I'm a Canadian farmer's son who looks at this as an opportunity to open up basically the Chinese market and provide prices directly to farmers so they know where their grain is going."

While COFCO already had an office in Vancouver, this will be COFCO Agri's first full-fledged trading office in Canada.