Canada’s seed processors never cease to impress me.
In many places in the world, the farmer delivers the seed to a bigger company, which cleans it and prepares it for next year.
In Canada, a lot of farmers want to do that themselves. That means when I sit across the table from a Canadian customer, they are the processor, owner, maintenance person — everything.
I work with Cimbria’s operations in northern Denmark but have a close relationship with Canada’s Nexeed, which retails our products. I’ve grown with Nexeed and followed them along in their development. Both our companies see things from the customer’s side of the table and as a result become an adviser, rather than just an equipment supplier.
The biggest challenge we have is getting a product to be as clean as possible and minimizing loss of good product. If you lose good product during cleaning and processing, upgrading to a larger capacity becomes moot.
Knowing what our equipment can do capacity-wise is something Nexeed does in partnership with Cimbria. Nexeed has always been able to give key feedback to Cimbria based on their customers’ feedback, so we can adjust our products accordingly.
Working with a colour sorter supplier like Cimbria Sea in Italy who’s been around a long time is essential — you can rely on their history and experience, something that’s only accrued over time. It also means that when someone has a challenge related to a product we’ve supplied, we take pride in ensuring that challenge is dealt with.
Sitting across from a customer who understands the equipment and process really helps us to know what that customer needs and what we can do for them. As someone who sells these products, I have to know what I’m talking about. I can’t just assume a certain piece of equipment will help someone. I have to be able to prove it.
Thanks to the help of Nexeed, Cimbria is able to do that. We have many relationships in Canada, meaning we can show a prospective customer a piece of equipment their next-door neighbour uses, rather than just talking about it. This concept is illustrated by our new marketing campaign, GROWING, in which we illustrate our company’s evolution in all aspects of what we do — product development, customers relations and employee training. Together with Nexeed, Cimbria is growing in all aspects of its development now and into the future. I look forward to another 16 years!
