Growing the Future

You're Only Talking to Five of 250 Grain Buyers

Episode Summary

Mike Witkowicz explains the origin and mechanics of a digital grain marketing platform built to close the gap between the four or five buyer relationships a typical grower manages and the more than 250 licensed grain buyers actually active in the market. He details the platform's buyer vetting standards, including Canadian Grain Commission licensing and payment insurance requirements that lead the team to reject nearly half of interested international buyers. The conversation closes on Mike's argument for "progressive agriculture" over polarizing terms like "regenerative," and what he sees as Canada's underappreciated strength in food safety and production efficiency.

Episode Notes

Mike Witkowicz built a digital grain marketing platform in the years after the Canadian Wheat Board dissolved, when farmers suddenly had to find their own buyers in a market most of them had never had to navigate. His argument is simple: a grower can realistically manage four or five buyer relationships, but there are more than 250 licensed grain buyers actually out there.

The platform connects growers directly to that wider buyer pool, but the real story is in what it turns away. Mike's team rejects nearly half the international buyers who come looking for grain, because every buyer on the platform has to be licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission or carry full payment insurance. He also makes the case for what he calls "progressive agriculture" over marketing terms like "regenerative," which he argues can quietly tell consumers that conventional growers have been doing something wrong.

What's Inside

• Why a grower typically only has relationships with 4 or 5 buyers when more than 250 licensed grain buyers actually exist in the market
• Why Mike's platform turns away close to half of the international buyers who come looking for Canadian grain
• The Canadian Grain Commission licensing and payment insurance rules that protect a farmer from a buyer defaulting on a deal
• Why an Italian pasta maker wanting 10,000 tons of durum a month got turned down, and what that says about vetting
• Mike's case against the word "regenerative," and what he argues "progressive agriculture" gets right instead
• How the platform grew from a full digital inventory system to a modular, scaled-down product after early growers found the original version too complex
  
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