North Dakota's Public Service Commission has asked a judge for permission to take over an organic grains company that has allegedly dawdled in paying a $36,286 bill from the Canadian Wheat Board.

Specialty Export Productions Inc., which operates grain elevators in Hatton and East Fairfield, may owe at least $200,000 in claims, Commissioner Tony Clark said Wednesday. He said the commission knew of nine creditors at the Hatton elevator alone.

Specialty Export has a $200,000 bond that can be used to pay creditors in an insolvency proceeding, Public Service Commission filings say. The company is based in Greenfield, Tenn., and opened its Hatton warehouse five years ago.

Its president, Max Crouse, did not return telephone and electronic mail messages left for comment.

The commission on Wednesday said it has asked a state district judge to appoint the PSC as trustee for the business. That would allow state regulators to begin sorting through farmers' claims against the company.

The petition also asks that Specialty Export be barred from selling any of its grains until a ruling is made on the proposed trusteeship. Clark said the company had some wheat, rye, barley, oats, soybeans and millet in its inventory.

"We do have reason to believe that there may be grain assets available in this particular case," Clark said. "We want to make sure that the court acts expeditiously."

Agency filings indicate the Canadian Wheat Board sold 165.7 metric tons, or just over 6,000 bushels, of organic Canadian western red spring wheat to Specialty Export in January.

The wheat was shipped to Hatton the following month in seven separate truckloads.

The Wheat Board, which is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, controls the marketing of wheat and barley grown in Canada's western prairie provinces.

Wheat Board officials began regularly pressing Specialty Exports for payment in June. On July 19, Crouse asked a Wheat Board sales manager for a week's time to arrange payment, but it was never forthcoming, filings in the case say.

Last week, the PSC received a formal payment demand from the Wheat Board, which triggered the commission's request that it be named trustee of Specialty Export.

North Dakota law allows the commission to begin insolvency proceedings against a grain elevator if it cannot pay a bill when a creditor demands his or her money.

Hatton is about 25 miles southwest of Grand Forks, in Traill County in eastern North Dakota. East Fairview is about 30 miles southwest of Williston, in McKenzie County, on the state's western border with Montana.