PrintQuestions remain over CWB
Mr. Ritz and Mr. Harper want to tell farmers that they have installed a new grain marketing future after Aug. 1, 2012 when the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk selling is eliminated. Wrong! The old private marketing structure that failed our farmers in the past has just been resurrected.
Skilled selling, done through the farmer-controlled CWB single desk and which the majority of farmers support, is being replaced with deliberate confusion through private pricing causing farmers the hardship of knowing when to sell and when to hold.
This old market structure system is run in the interests of the grain buyers. Buyers can now bestow cheaper prices upon farmers by fiddling with the delivery time, place and with the quality offers (basis), thus paying a lower overall price for grain. Grain companies are in control of the quality bids and thus expect, gleefully, to capture more profit.
If grain is short supply then the price would be up. But when there is an abundant supply and even if the farmers have not yet sold any grain, the price would be down because the buyers will say there is lots of grain around. Just listen to the trade. They talk as if they own the crop based on what they think is being produced, as if they can say for sure that it will all be harvested.
Already, Canada’s customers are worried about the quality and timely delivery of our grain. But they are happy that they might be able to find lower prices by talking to different suppliers. So what message does this signal to farmers about our farm income Mr Ritz?
Farmers are asking themselves, what did I do last election to deserve such an unscientific casino marketing headache from this government?
Farmers are good at reading signals, and they say bring back the value of our CWB either by court order recovery of the CWB or by reinstatement of the CWB.
Ian L. Robson
Farmer, Deleau, Manitoba
Comments
Be the FIRST to comment!