The Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative (CSPC) kicked off their membership drive for 2016-17 with 4 town hall meetings last week on Tuesday, December 13 in Wyoming and Dresden and Thursday December, 15 in Strathroy and Warwick. The aim of the meetings was to reach out to any who missed the Corn Stover Baling Demonstrations in November and to attract farmers who will provide corn stalks and wheat straw for Comet Biorefining’s planned facility in Sarnia, which will turn the biomass into high quality dextrose sugar.
Despite some adverse weather conditions, the meetings were a success. Farmers showed great interest in learning more about the emerging co-operative in the southwestern Ontario region. The two hour meetings provided farmers with more information about CSPC as well as their partner Comet Biorefining. All farmers who were interested received an ‘Offering Statement’ which discusses the terms of the CSPC investment in greater detail.
As part of the supply chain, CSPC members will own an equity stake in the facility, which will need 75,000 tonnes of biomass based on about 22,250 hectares (55,000 acres).
Andrew Richard, Founder and CTO of Comet Biorefining stated, “It was great to see the turnout and interest from producers. Our partnership with CSPC is extremely important to Comet, and we look forward to continuing to support their equity campaign as it continues."
Jay Cunningham, Business Development Manager of CSPC, noted, “The town hall meetings were an excellent opportunity for the Co-Op to introduce its offering to many new producers while at the same time answering questions about this exciting new opportunity. I look forward to signing up the new members that these meetings and our on-going activity is generating.”
Source: CSPOOP