For some time now, private market commentators have slagged the Canadian Wheat Board. These attacks alternate between the puppet farm organizations like the wheat or barley growers and the direct trade-paid market commentators.
Commentator John De Pape, as a former Cargill employee and a tireless promoter of margin trading activities, is one of these CWB slaggers. His reports are laden with meaningless jargon designed to make him sound like an academic criticizing the CWB.
This rings more than a little hollow when you realize that the CWB returns more than 95 percent of market revenue back to us as the benefiting farmers. The demise of the CWB would allow Mr. De Pape and his private trade friends to profit from more margin trading at the expense of farmers.
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Short rapeseed crop may put China in a bind
Industry thinks China’s rapeseed crop is way smaller than the official government estimate. The country’s canola imports will also be down, so there will be a lot of unmet demand.
How reliable have Mr. De Pape’s comments been? In 2003 he said barley exports had dwindled to “insignificance.” In the same report he also complained it is “short-sighted” for the CWB to charge a premium price to U.S. and Canadian maltsters.
This is a magical way of saying farmers should take less for their grain, presumably by allowing Mr. De Pape and his friends in the private trade to claim their margin instead.
This is typical of Mr. De Pape’s shortsighted thinking. Fast forward to 2010, what do we see? The high Canadian dollar has taken the bloom off the cattle market, the Russians just stopped all grain exports, malting and feed barley sales are booming.
Lucky we still have the wheat board to negotiate the best deals in all the market conditions. …
Is there a connection to this flood of self-serving trade commentary and this years’ CWB farmer director elections? Yes, there is a connection. Please vote for farmer CWB directors that fully support the CWB.
Ian L. RobsonDeleau, Manitoba
