Entrepreneur, Business Owner & Investor

Paul Riviere is an entrepreneur, businessman, investor and owner of various self-made companies and corporations. He comes from a strong line of hard working, enterprisers that worked hard and passed on many traits, skills and work ethic to help form the businessman he has become today.
 

The Riviere ancestors originated from a farming community in France.  After serving in WWI, Paul’s Great Grandfather brought his new wife to Canada in hopes to settle a piece of land in the new world and create a better post-war life.  He settled in the Radville area in the 1920s.  Life and settlement began in a sod house and times were tough.  Struggles and trials caused them to rent out their newly acquired and broken farmland and head back to France during the “Dirty Thirties”.  Rumblings of another war in Europe, and improved conditions in Canada allowed for their decision to come back and continue their dream.  That dream continued on throughout their lives, and those of their son, grandson, and great grandson, Paul.  That dream and original settlement has blossomed into the 4th generation-run farm that is now reality, and so much more.
 

Paul tried his hand at business ownership early on in 2004.  He started a small business buying and selling antique tractors.  The idea for this came to him when he had first discovered the buying and selling power of eBay.  Paul’s grandfather had an old, restored Massey-Ferguson antique tractor that needed to be sold.  After Paul was successful in that sale he started to think about the very old tractor that was down in the old junk pile at the farm.  He dragged it out and thought he’d try his hand at selling it on eBay.  He was successful and within the next year he was exporting several antique “fixer-upper” tractors to Europe.  Over the course of 3 years, Riviere Ag Exports was born and exported nearly 200 tractors in shipping containers overseas.   The income that he accumulated from this impromptu endeavor paid for the majority of his undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan.  In 2005, Paul studied as an exchange student in Mesa, Arizona at the Williams Field Campus for one semester. In 2007, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, majoring in Agricultural Economics.
 

After completing his post-secondary education, the call back to the farm was strong and Paul moved back to his hometown area.   Near Radville he purchased a farm consisting of a farmyard and 10 quarters of land.  Over the course of the next nine years, Paul and his father Raymond farmed together. During this span of time, Paul decided it was time to move back to the multi-generational family farm and in 2012 he did.  He consolidated the two farms into one closer operation in 2015.  The next year Paul’s father retired from full time operating of the farm, but still consistently helped and still helps with daily tasks during and throughout seeding and harvest seasons.
 

At this time, Paul took over as the full time operator of the farm and set out to grow the family business.  Ever the entrepreneur, he believed that there were many opportunities beyond the 3000 acre farm.  In the Fall of 2016, Paul made the giant leap to transform the farm into a pedigreed seed business.  The previous company selling tractors went from Riviere Ag Exports Ltd, to Riviere Ag Seeds Ltd.  2017 was the year he harvested his first crop of pedigreed seed and shortly thereafter made his first seed sale.  Advertising, marketing, crop tours, and crop trials were all factors moving forward toward success.
 

In the Winter of 2018, Paul was contacted through an affiliation of FP Genetics about starting an agricultural independent retail business in the town of Radville.  The idea of an independent retail in Radville, alongside Riviere Ag Seeds Ltd. was an appealing symbiotic business relationship.  In the Spring of 2019 he collaborated with partners and the grand opening of Core Ag Inputs Radville was held.  
 

Smart business building and strong family ties are truly the core of Paul’s beliefs.  He is always looking for intelligent business opportunities to add to his portfolio, along with adding value to his community.  His strong family values, and ties with his friends and rural comrades add to his admirable qualities of wanting to build a better future for all of those around him and for the future of farming.

October, 2024