REGINA – Farmers who are getting $6 (U.S.) a bushel for their durum wheat in the United States, are getting “ripped off,” said a Canadian Wheat Board commissioner.
In an interview at the United Grain Growers’ annual meeting, Richard Klassen said the board had recently sold No. 2 Canada Western amber durum, with 13 percent protein, into the eastern market. He told delegates the board got $10.37 a bu., which translates to an on-farm price of $9.50.
But Lampman, Sask., delegate Gerald Fornwald asked Klassen why the pool return outlook for No. 3 Canada Western amber durum was just $5.50 per bu. He added his local street prices for feed wheat were better than the outlook for No. 1 CW spring wheat. “What’s the problem?”
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Klassen replied that the pool return outlook does not always reflect the current value of the crop. Timing is one of the drawbacks of the pool returns outlooks.
“Obviously a monthly PRO is not sufficient,” he said, adding the board was planning to soon release a mini-PRO that showed the percentage of crop that had been priced so far this crop year.
Who was watching?
Another delegate from Langenburg, asked which of the four commissioners was sitting at the “single desk” when sales were made into last year’s feed barley pool.
At one point last year the pool return outlook for 1994-95 feed barley was $118 per tonne. When estimated pool returns were released last spring, the feed barley price had dropped to $102 per tonne.
In hindsight, Klassen replied the board priced too much feed barley too early. When prices rose the board wasn’t able to meet commitments to Japan, which was the highest priced market.
Klassen said the 2.3 million tonnes of malting barley in the pool last year also drove up the price of feed barley in the domestic market.
Because farmers held their barley back to the very last, in the hopes of getting selected for malting, it reduced deliveries and drove up the price of feed barley
