Some organic producers are uneasy about what they call the Canadian Wheat Board’s intrusion into their marketing.
“We developed our own markets,” said Steve Snider of Little Red Hen Mills at New Norway, Alta.
“We developed these business relationships with these people over the long term and we had problems marketing our product as far as having to do the buy-back and going through the paperwork process.”
In a news release issued before the board’s conference on organic farming earlier this month, a group of organic farmers condemned the board for trying to control markets they say they developed through their own initiative and hard work.
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Gord Price, the board’s marketing manager for domestic and export wheat, tried to reassure them.
“We will respect that,” he said during the Regina conference. “However, we are looking at the opportunity to ship producers’ grain.”
He said demand around the world is climbing and the board wants Canadians to have the first shot.
Many customers want both conventional and organic grain, he said, and the board wants to take advantage of that.
Price also said some producers aren’t willing to take the marketing risk others have.
“We can look at the options,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to go in there and be low-balling that market. “
Snider said that’s exactly what some producers are worried about.
“They probably do have a place as far as volume sales and that’s where they’re getting some producer sympathy,” he said, adding that many producers want to be exempt from the wheat board’s jurisdiction.
