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SASKATOON — There has been a change in leadership at Genesis Fertilizer.

Jason Mann has stepped down as CEO, president and chair of the company.

Genesis is attempting to build a $2.3 billion nitrogen fertilizer plant in Belle Plaine, Sask., as well as a network of seven distribution centres across the Prairie region.

Mann is a founder of the project and will remain a director of Genesis.

He said the leadership change was a planned evolution as the project moves from concept into the design and execution phase.

“Genesis Fertilizers has been conducting interviews for an operations-focused CEO for some time, and the board’s intent has always been to appoint leadership with the skillset best aligned to each phase of the project,” Mann said in an email.

“The interim governance structure is in place, and the project continues to advance with strong board oversight and partner engagement.”

The move comes at the same time that another company headed by Mann is experiencing financial difficulty.

He is president and CEO of AgraCity, a supplier of generic crop input products that has run into financial difficulty.

“AgraCity has experienced some cash flow issues and has been in a process to refinance our business,” the firm said in a recent message to farmers.

“The process has unfortunately taken much longer than expected and has resulted in product availability issues this spring.”

AgraCity told its farmer customers that outstanding product orders that have already been paid for are being cancelled and converted into a product credit.

Mann noted that Genesis Fertilizers is a separate legal entity from AgraCity and is independently governed.

The other members of the Genesis board of directors are Ian Craven, Kathy Jordison and Garth Whyte. White is assuming the role of interim chair.

“Jason’s early leadership helped bring Genesis Fertilizers from vision to reality,” said Whyte.

“As we move into the design and development phase, our focus remains on delivering a world-class fertilizer facility that gives Canadian producers more control over their supply chain.”

Genesis estimates that Western Canadian farmers use 2.8 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer annually and demand is growing at a clip of four percent annually.

The proposed plant would be capable of producing 1.128 million tonnes of nitrogen-based fertilizers annually, including 510,000 tonnes of urea, 364,000 tonnes of urea ammonium sulfate and 254,000 tonnes of diesel exhaust fluid.

The estimated cost of production will be $300 per tonne.

The company said 850,000 tonnes or 75 percent of the plant’s annual fertilizer production will be sold direct to farmers. The remainder will not be locked in and will be sold on the open market.

Genesis is targeting $449 million of farmer investment in the project.

The first two rounds of farmer financing are sold out and the third and final round is in progress, according to the website.

Construction on the plant is expected to begin in 2026 with commissioning of the facility in 2029.

The company is currently in the front-end engineering and design phase of the project. It has hired DL Engineering & Construction, a 麻豆传媒AV Korean firm specializing in fertilizer plants, to conduct that work.

About the author

Reporter/Analyst

Sean Pratt has been working at The Western Producer since 1993 after graduating from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Sean also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked in a bank for a few years before switching careers. Sean primarily writes markets and policy stories about the grain industry and has attended more than 100 conferences over the past three decades. He has received awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, North American Agricultural Journalists and the American Agricultural Editors Association.

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