Many Sask. grain farmers couldn't fulfil their contracts: APAS

THEY CHOSE THE MARKET OVER THE CWB

An overwhelming number of respondents to a survey of Saskatchewan farmers say they fell short of this year's grain contracts.

The survey by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan found 75 per cent of roughly 200 respondents couldn't fulfil grain contracts after a dire drought baked their fields earlier this year.

"This issue is fairly widespread across the province, just like the drought was," APAS president Todd Lewis said.

"Producers and grain companies have had to struggle with this over the last number of months."

Respondents were also concerned about the lack of transparency around calculating buyout and administrative fees.

It was a common complaint during harvest, when rural groups and the province asked grain companies to be flexible with contracts that grain farmers had no hope of fulfilling.

Reported buyout provisions ranged from $20,000 to more than $300,000. Interest rates on unpaid amounts ran up to 19 per cent, according to the survey.

The severity of this year's drought created the largest payout for crop insurance in the province’s history, to the tune of $2.4 billion, Finance Minister Donna Harpauer reported on Monday.

Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, noted the survey may not be a representative sample, but that doesn't diminish the issue.

"There's a group out there that really got caught on the wrong side of their contracts," he said.

"That's not good for them; that's not good for us."

Sobkowich said grain companies have also been losing revenue without the tonnes they expected to export.

He expects them to emphasize proper communication with farmers so both parties are making informed decisions about the risk they're taking on, he said.

"You can't go through a unique and impactful situation like we did this year and not evaluate and try and learn from it."

Recent Statistics Canada numbers comparing January to September in 2020 and 2021 show total crop receipts were up by 9.6 per cent, with non-durum wheat up roughly 14 per cent and durum wheat up about 32 per cent.

Sobkowich said that shows some farmers may have reaped the rewards from fulfilling those contracts during the drought.

"What this demonstrates is that some producers may have gained significantly at the expense of others," he said.

Nick Pearce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix

1. 2020 hindsight: Ending the Canadian Wheat Board was …
   https://www.nfu.ca/2020-hindsight-ending-the-canadian-wheat-board-was...

   2020-07-30 · 2020 hindsight: Ending the Canadian Wheat Board was an economic tragedy. August 1st 2020 marks the 8th anniversary of one of the great economic tragedies in Canadian history. This was the day the wrecking ball swung by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz finally destroyed one of the most important ...

   • Author: Terry Boehm

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Canadian Wheat Board | The Canadian Encyclopedia

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-wheat-board

2006-02-06 · The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was an agricultural marketing board headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Established in 1935, for much of its history it was the sole

HARPER SELLS WHEAT BOARD TO US CORPORATION & SAUDI INVESTMENT FUND

Brent Patterson

6 years ago

The Harper government has sold the Canadian Wheat Board.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow says, "Harper sells out Wheat Board to two foreign corporations. Biggest theft from farmers in Canada's history!!!"

The Globe and Mail reports, "Until Ottawa ended its monopoly in 2012, the Canadian Wheat Board was the prairie farmer’s link to food companies around the world. Now the former giant has been taken over by a U.S. agrifood company and an investment fund owned by Saudi Arabia. The $250-million deal announced on Wednesday marks the final stage in the transformation of the Canadian Wheat Board, which was formed by Parliament in 1935 to guarantee western farmers would get fair prices for their wheat and barley."

The article notes, "Global Grain Group (G3), a joint venture between food company Bunge Ltd. and a unit of Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. known as SALIC Canada Ltd., will pay $250-million for a 50.1-per-cent stake in the grain trader. The rest of the equity in CWB will be available to farmers who sell their grain to the company."

But the Financial Post clarifies that rather than "paying for" or "buying" the CWB, "Under the terms of the deal, G3 is committed to spending $250 million in the CWB." And Global News adds, "G3 Global Grain Group will get 50.1 per cent of the company in exchange for an investment of $250 million. The other 49.9 per cent will be kept in trust for farmers who deliver grain to the board. Any farmer who does deliver will get $5 per tonne in equity in the organization. In seven years, G3 Global Grain Group has the option to buy back the shares from farmers at market value."

National Farmers Union president Jan Slomp says, "With this, the Conservative government has accomplished the biggest transfer of wealth away from farmers in the history of Canada. The CWB’s physical assets, its commercial relationships, and its good name have all been given away. The 'buyers' of the CWB actually get to keep the $250 million pittance they are 'paying' for it."

And NDP MP Pat Martin comments, "This is a strategic industry for Canada. It might be different if they sold the wheat board for billions of dollars. But they didn’t. They’re handing it over free of charge. All the assets – we’re talking the thousands of rail cars, the port terminals, the ships on the Great Lakes. ...I think it’s a sad for the Canadian grain industry. There never was a business for abolishing the wheat board to begin with, but you really have to question what kind of a business model it is to hand it over to an American agrifood giant and a Saudi agrifood giant who until recently were your greatest competitors."

The Council of Canadians has long supported the Canadian Wheat Board.

In 2005, we said, "The Government of Canada should maintain the Canadian Wheat Board and supply-management mechanisms that support family farms, protecting them from the prejudiced impact of international trade agreements." And in 2011, we participated in a court challenge that argued Section 47 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act required a vote by grain producers to remove the single-desk marketing authority of the Canadian Wheat Board. At a rally that year in front of the Canadian Wheat Board office in Winnipeg, Barlow told the large crowd assembled there, "Stephen Harper doesn't like democracy, and you know what? I don't think he likes farmers very much either."

Farmers Reject Phony Plebiscite

That should be the headline in the papers today, but it isn't. The headlines are full of government spin on their failed barley plebiscite.

A total of 62 per cent of just over 29,000 farmers who cast eligible ballots said they wanted the board out of the barley market altogether, or for the board to participate in a competitive market. Another 38 per cent said they wanted to maintain the status quo.

Farmers overwhelmingly rejected Chuck Strahl's plebiscite as it was not sanctioned by the Wheat Board. About 86,000 ballots were mailed out based on crop insurance data.

Now at least in some reports those ballots were as high as 89,000. That means if 29,000 farmers voted even with my terrible reputation at math that works out to one third voted not even fifty percent as the government claims.

Strahl said KPMG, the firm that handled the plebiscite for the government, made every effort to ensure only eligible votes were counted. Voter turnout was just over 50 per cent. Strahl said many eligible voters said they didn't bother to vote because they only sell their barley to feed lots, not the wheat board.

So if two thirds of prairie farmers don't vote that means they support the status quo.

The real number that supports the Conservatives opposition to the existence of the farmer owned producer coop; the Canadian Wheat Board they can only muster up amongst their Reform Party base in Southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, 15.2% of the total who voted. Not even the total who could vote.

Contrary to Strahl's math; where he combines pro-choice with anti-Wheat Board,and proudly announces that his side won with 62%, Wayne Easterly the Agriculture critic for the Liberals was justified in pointing out that the numbers could equally show support for the Wheat Board 87.2%. Since those that answered question number two wanted both choice and the Wheat Board.

As Neil Waugh points out in the Edmonton Sun;

Another 15.2% said get rid of the board altogether when it came to the barley business. Still, it was enough to carry the day.

In the four western provinces, where the CWB monopoly rules, the overall result saw only 37.8% back the so-called "single desk," while pro choice hit 49.4%.

But when the Saskatchewan numbers were broken out - where 15,327 farmers voted - 45% chose to extend the monopoly.

In Manitoba, where it appeared a boycott was in the works, 50.6% of only 3,703 barley producer cast ballots saying leave it be.

In B.C., the vote was 49.4% pro choice. But only 156 ballots were in the boxes.

Interesting that Waugh fails to note the Alberta number of votes, in his article.
Well in all the rest of the provinces, total votes other than Alberta; 19,186 That leaves Alberta with less than 10,000 votes and Waugh fails to break them down.

They were 9,881 total votes. It was in Alberta that the plebiscite got 15% support for getting rid of the Wheat Board, the same number as the national result. In fact all of Strahl's numbers are for Alberta.

They are not the reality of the prairie position on the Wheat Board.

Farmer support for Option 1 the Wheat Board was;

Manitoba 50.6%
Saskatchewan; 45.1%
B.C.; 42%

Farmer support for Option 2 market to Wheat Board or on my own;
Manitoba; 34.5%
Saskatchewan; 42.1%
B.C.; 49%

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan the majority of farmers support the Wheat Board, their farmer owned producer cooperative.

Only in B.C. is it the reverse, but the government in its desperation looks at percentages instead of core numbers. B.C. only had 156 votes compared to Manitoba and Saskatchewan's 19,0000 votes.

That's because the Conservatives included B.C. making this not a prairie farm vote but a Western one.

Just as Alberta's vote skews the numbers.

For Option 1: 21.4%
For Option 2: 63.4%

Prairie farmers face their battle to maintain their producer cooperative not with Ottawa, but with Alberta and its party in Ottawa.

The government asked three questions. Period. And there was no clear winner. The government has to resort to arithmetricks.

The reality is that 57,000-60,000 farmers abstained from voting, a boycott was called, and they did not vote in the governments fixed plebiscite. That is twice as many as voted, and a clear rejection of Strahl and the Alberta Reform Party Farm lobby.

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Farmers Vote To Join Wheat Board

In Nebraska. Farmers vote to join the Wheat Board.

That runs counter to the propaganda of the Harpocrites that farmers want an open market. American farmers who suffer from Agribusiness domination of the market like Canadian farmers recognize that a Marketing Board is the better option. Because as we all know consolidation creates better market access in the capitalist market.

As Marx said; That production rests on the supreme rule of capital. The centralization of capital is essential to the existence of capital as an independent power.

The Nebraska Wheat Growers Association, formed in 1954 and based in Ogallala, plans to move its office to Lincoln, as part of a proposed merger with the Nebraska Wheat Board. "The proposal, under discussion for about a year now, is aimed at improving the efficiency of both groups and making promotion of wheat more effective," says Mike Sullivan, NAWG president and producer from Wallace. "It will also make lobbying efforts on behalf of wheat growers more effective with NAWG being based in Lincoln near the Legislature." The Nebraska Wheat Growers Association is a dues-paying, voluntary membership organization that represents the state's producers, including lobbying for them on state and national policy issues. It sets membership policy on such matters as the farm program, crop insurance, soil and water conservation, transportation, and environmental issues. The Wheat Board, on the other hand, consists of a seven-member board, appointed by the governor, that administers the 1-1/4-cent-per-bushel wheat checkoff fee paid by all Nebraska wheat growers. The checkoff was created under state law and as such the board is prohibited from lobbying on state issues, although it can do so on national issues. The board's responsibilities are allocating checkoff dollars for research, promotion, education and market development, says Royce Schaneman, executive director of the Wheat Board.

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Wheat Boom

Death of the Family Farm

Wheat Board

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Privateer Runs Wheat Board

The Conservatives have pulled their coup on the farmers run Wheat Board.

And in firing the current CEO his replacement is pro privatization, pro corporate monopolies. Strahl made his firing public complete with staged rally.

Gosh the PM reads the biography of Stalin this summer and we get an autocratic PMO. Wonder what Strahl was reading this summer?

How To Stage Nuremburg Rallies, maybe.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has moved on an opponent of his plans to end the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board.

He fired Adrian Measner, the board's president and a 34-year veteran of the organization, on Tuesday.

"It's time for the wheat board to make a buck for Canadian farmers and to quit fiddling around in the political game," Strahl said.

The minister made his announcement at a staged rally west of Winnipeg. Farmers who oppose the wheat board's current monopoly on international wheat and barley sales surrounded him.

Greg Arason, a former wheat board president, is the interim president. Arason supports the government's plan to end the board's monopoly.

Mr. Arason was President and CEO of the CWB between 1998 and 2002 and prior to that was CEO of Manitoba Pool Elevators. He has served as a director of a number of agri-business companies and industry associations including CanAmera Foods, Can-Oat Milling, The Chamber of Maritime Commerce, Canada Grains Council, Prince Rupert Grain, Westco Fertilizers, Western Grain Elevator Association, and XCAN Grain.


For more coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left see Buckdog.

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Tories Face Farmer Backlash

As I said here before the Conservatives are listening to the smallest minority of the social conservatives in the their party base when it comes to the Wheat Board. Of course it fits with their neo-liberal idoeology, which is why they do it. However when it comes to the broader base of the farming community across the Prairies, the folks who are the real voter base for the Conservatives, well they are about to lose them over this issue. Cause its not just about the Wheat Board, its about democracy. Which of course scares the bejesus out of the Harper autocracy.

Farmers fretting over Wheat Board's future

Doug Chorney's devotion to the Conservative Party runs deep enough that he spent last winter hammering campaign signs into the frozen prairie on behalf of the local Tory candidate.

But Mr. Chorney, a 41-year-old grain farmer, believes the federal government is about to make an enormous mistake by dismantling the monopoly power of the Canadian Wheat Board.

"They've never properly explained how you can have a strong and viable Canadian Wheat Board in a dual market," Mr. Chorney says. "In fact, every credible voice on the subject says it's not possible."

"They're really floundering on this issue," he says.

"If we just get a vote, we'll have no trouble showing that farmers want the CWB to stay," Mr. Chorney says. "We're not scared of a vote, and the other side is. That speaks volumes."

Mr. Strahl wouldn't commit to a plebiscite, he says in an interview.

"All this task force is doing is answering technical questions on what would be necessary to move from a monopoly position to a marketing-choice position," Mr. Strahl says. "You don't need a plebiscite on that."

Tories' plan to end Canadian Wheat Board monopoly has political risks

Alan Skardal has voted for the federal Conservatives for more than 30 years, but insists the ballot he cast for them last Jan. 23 was his last.

The grain and cattle farmer from Baldur, Man., says his commitment never wavered despite Tory-supported agriculture policies that cost him and his neighbours thousands of dollars through the years - from elimination of a grain transportation subsidy to support for meat packers during the mad cow crisis.

But the party's decision to look at ending the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on western wheat and barley exports before letting farmers vote on it is the last straw.

"I don't know who I will vote for in the next federal election, but I do know who it won't be. I will never vote Conservative again," Skardal, 50, wrote this month in a letter to the editor of the Farmers Independent Weekly.

And for more on the Wheat Board check out fellow Albertan and Progressive Blogger Buckdog.

See:

Wheat Board

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Lorne Gunter On The Wheat Board

As I have said before the right wing cares less about the nature of a monopoly, just that a monopoly exists and somehow that is unnatural. Of course that's because they think monoplies are the result of mercantilism of the State. In reality as I have pointed out before monopolies are the natural result of captialism. Right Wing former Alberta Report aulmni and CanWest columnist Lorne Gunter attacks the Wheat Board for being a monopoly. Forget democracy, forget its what the producers want, its a gosh darn monopoly.....

It matters not a bit whether two-thirds of farmers want the monopoly to continue or two-thirds want it abolished: There is no moral justification for a monopoly in the first place.

The Harpocrites have taken their attack on the Wheat Board straight from Gunters advice column.

And then he uses the Australian Wheat Board as an example of the success of a dual market.

Australia permits sales outside its wheat board and its producers, whether in the board or out, have seen no loss of income as a result of "dual marketing."

Of course he forgot to mention this result of privatization..... Australian Wheat Board “oil for food” inquiry ends

SEE:

Wheat Board



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The End of the Wheat Board

The Tories have it in for the Wheat Board. Ever since they were the Reform Party they have had an active front group; Farmers for Justice.

This little rump of border jumping farmers is now getting to have a private meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, but the majority of Farmers who are represented on the Wheat Board are not invited.

In light of the G8 reccomendation that the WTO meet in August to discuss farm subsidies what could this mean? The end of the Wheat Board in a back room deal by the Tories. Talk about lack of transparency and accountability, and the hidden sixth priority.

Art Macklin a farmer and board member of the WB warned about this back in April.

The U.S. and EU want to remove that decision from Canadian farmers. At the WTO talks, their negotiators have been clear that they want an end to the single desk selling authority of organizations like the CWB. Organizations that, in trade lingo, are called State Trading Enterprises (STEs).

The WTO position of the U.S. and EU, whose companies are some of our biggest competitors in the world market, would basically outlaw farmers' ability to have an effective organization able to compete with these companies. It would make it illegal for any farm group in any country to establish a marketing organization that had bargaining powers backed by legislation. It wouldn't matter whether 51 per cent or 100 per cent of the farmers democratically voted in favour of the concept, as it would be illegal under WTO rules.

Those companies are actively working behind the scenes to ensure that happens. On February 27, 2006, an organization calling itself 'Grain Vision' sent a letter to Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food; and Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board urging the government to change its negotiating position at the WTO. The letter was also addressed to David Emerson, Minister of International Trade.

It stated; \"Cabinet needs to change this position (defending the CWB). We are asking you, as the Ministers responsible for the negotiating position, to immediately put the need for this change on the Cabinet agenda …We ask that you begin to provide greater consistency in Canada's negotiating position by allowing our agricultural negotiators to explicitly bring the monopoly powers of state trading enterprises into the discussions….For greater clarity, Grain Vision is recommending that the Government of Canada be prepared to discuss and negotiate the matter of exporting state trading enterprises at the WTO.\"

Predictably, 'Grain Vision' is driven by the interests of a collection of grain companies that stand to make a handsome profit from the end of the CWB. The list of companies signing the letter includes: Cargill Limited, Louis Dreyfus Canada Limited, Rahr Malting Canada Limited, Agricore United (a company whose largest single shareholder is ADM), Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (no longer a farmer cooperative), James Richardson International Limited. The letter was also signed by a handful of groups like the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Western Barley Growers. Those groups often claim to be a legitimate voice of farmers but in reality would not exist without the sponsorship largess of big corporations. Some urban chambers of commerce, some Alberta government mandated farm groups, the Grain Growers of Canada, and a few other groups also signed the letter.

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Playing In The Pool

While eyes are focused on the debacle that is the Tories failed attempt to impose dual marketing in the Wheat and Barley market, with their backdoor attempt to dismatle the Wheat Board lets look at who benefits from dual marketing.

And no it's not about competition, or better prices, its about private purchasing monopolies versus public producer monopoly. To whit the two major suppliers of Grains in the west to buyers is Saskpool and Agricore.

Distributors/buyers versus Farmers/Producers. The irony is that the Wheat Board was not a creation of socialists but the producer advocates in the UFA and Labour in the Alberta Government in the Thirties and later the Social Credit Party.

UFA was founded in 1909 as a government lobby group following a merger between the Alberta Farmers' Association and the Canadian Society for Equity. UFA began as a non-partisan organization who's aim was to promote the interest of farmers in the province. In 1913, it was able to pressure Alberta's Liberal government to organize the "Alberta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company" which eventually became the "United Grain Growers".

The UFA was a believer in the cooperative movement, and supported women's suffrage. In 1912 women were permitted to become members of the parallel United Farm Women's Association, and in 1914, women were granted full membership rights in UFA itself.

By 1920, UFA had become the most influential lobby group in Alberta with over 30,000 registered members.

Agricore is now under a hostile takeover bid by Saskpool in anticipation of the Tories dual marketing scheme.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool cut its loss in its first quarter by exporting more grain, and expects bigger shipments to continue, Canada's second-largest grain company said on Thursday.

Saskpool -- which has launched a hostile bid for bigger rival Agricore United (AU.TO: Quote) -- reported a loss of C$5.1 million ($4.4 million), or 6 Canadian cents per share, for the quarter ended October 31. That compares with a loss of C$7.7 million, or 9 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

"We believe margins in our grain business will improve over last year given the high quality of this year's crop and robust export movement to date," Chief Executive Mayo Schmidt told analysts on a conference call.

Revenue was C$341.3 million, up 25 percent from year-before sales of C$273.9 million

And who should have investments in Agricore besides the old Alberta Wheat Pool and the Alberta Government? Both notoriously Anti-Wheat Board. Why Brian Mulroneys old pals the agribusiness monopoly; ADM.

U.S. grain giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N: Quote) owns 23.4 percent of Agricore shares, and will see its stake rise to 28 percent on January 10, when Agricore redeems debentures for shares.

And of course its about Free Trade, despite the failure of the Doha round of WTO talks. The reason Agriculture and Agri-Foods Minister Chuck Strahl is dividing the issue into two; Barley and Wheat and holding a plebiscite on barley marketing only is the support they have amongst their Reform base of some Prarie Barley farmers.

We cannot ignore trade implications when we decide how to vote on wheat or barley marketing. Support for the single-desk plays into the hands of those who would build and maintain trade barriers along our borders.

Tom Hewson, vice-president, Western Barley Growers Association.

For more coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left see Buckdog.

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