If Garth Hodges had one wish for Canada’s canola industry, it would be for it to speak with one voice.
The vice-president of marketing and business development with Bayer CropScience said there are too many provincial and federal organizations.
“Canada is extremely fragmented and maybe duplicates a lot of things,” he told delegates attending the Canola Industry Meeting in Saskatoon.
Hodges urged provincial canola groups to consider following successful models of unified farm voices such as France’s Unigrains, Australia’s Grains Research & Development Corp. and the United States’ American Soybean Association.
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“Ask them how they did it because quite frankly, I think it’s a matter of survival right now,” he said.
In an interview following his presentation, Hodges said it’s time for grower groups to put aside whatever differences they might have and work together on establishing research priorities because there is too much duplication and too many pet projects.
“We’re investing some money in a lot of things but not a lot of money in some things,” he said. “Is there a way we can trust each other so much so that we can decide on what is important for the entire industry and focus resources?”
Canola is too small a crop to be this fragmented, and the industry risks losing investment to bigger crops if it doesn’t speak with a unified voice, said Hodges.
Dale Leftwich, director of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, thinks it is important to maintain a diversity of voices in the canola sector.
“I understand why industry would love to have just one person they could go to to find the farmers’ voice, but any time I’m in the coffee shop, if I’m with three farmers, we have four opinions,” he said.
There has been lots of talk about amalgamating grower groups to reduce the levy burden, but Leftwich believes that would be dangerous because it is how voices are lost in the din or muted.
Bill Ross, executive manager of Manitoba Canola Growers, said there was an attempt several years ago to amalgamate all the provincial grower groups into the Canadian Canola Growers Association.
“That didn’t go anywhere.”
Ross said the timing wasn’t right, and the CCGA wasn’t the robust organization it is today.
“I don’t know if grower groups would look at that differently now or not. Nobody has brought it up.”
Ross said there is already a fair amount of collaboration between grower groups in Manitoba, Sask-atchewan and Alberta on research and policy initiatives.
He said that is a huge benefit for a smaller organization such as Manitoba Canola Growers because it gets to participate in big research projects at an affordable cost.
Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said Hodges provides valuable insight and shouldn’t be ignored. She said the industry can’t rest on its laurels and needs to be open to doing things in new and different ways.
“It’s a message to all of us that we really have to be open to these conversations,” she said.
Hodges didn’t want to say what organization he thinks should take the leadership role in setting research priorities for the entire industry, but he did say the canola council is “extremely well positioned” to take the reins.
“It’s an autonomous body. It’s a neutral body. It’s a body that represents the industry,” he said.
“It would be very convenient and very appropriate if they were able to direct not only policy but direct research more effectively.”
