The Canadian Wheat Board shouldn’t be supporting a call for farm aid when it’s not doing its part to move grain, says the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
“Contract calls are minimal,” said vice-president Kevin Archibald. “There is really some concern that the Canadian Wheat Board and its monopoly are not serving the needs of farmers.”
He said the board is contributing to producers’ cash flow problems by not moving more grain. Lack of movement is also plugging elevators, particularly west of Saskatoon and in the Peace River region, he said.
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“They’re speculating with farmers money,” if the board is waiting for higher prices, Archibald said. “Some cash flow would be better than none.”
Canadian Grain Commission figures show that from the beginning of this crop year to Nov. 8, Canada has exported 2.85 million tonnes of wheat, excluding durum. Last year in the same period, it had shipped 5.44 million tonnes.
Board commissioner Gordon Machej said grain movement is on target.
“The grain movement at the start of the crop year was a bit slow,” he told reporters after speaking to United Grain Growers delegates in Regina. “The demand from the customer side was not very heavy, and prices were sagging.”
The board decided not to “chase” customers at that time, Machej said, because it wouldn’t be helpful to push more volume on a soft market.
Since August, movement has picked up, he said. He is forecasting “respectable” movement over the next few months.
On target
“We will be having additional calls on our A contract, both in the case of CPS wheats, durum wheats, as well as our CWRS towards the end of November and early December,” Machej said. “So we’re very much on the target that we set that we’re planning to get 45 percent movement by the end of the (calendar) year.”
He said movement figures compared to last year do look low, but that is partly because there is a lot less wheat to move.
Now that the port of Prince Rupert is operating, he expects more car unloads, along with the additional contract calls.
