In the Feb. 3, 2011, issue ofThe Western Producer,Fred G. Willis claims that Australia has lower wheat prices for almost all Australian farmers since the adoption of a dual market.
Mr. Willis states, “With the dual market system, the AWB is unable to get higher grain prices and is now treated as another grain company.” Of course, this comes with no validation using any data or statements from independent sources.
I have had the opportunity to speak with some Australian farmers via the internet and the comment I have received has been this:
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“Even I have to admit privately I thought this messy harvest might test the deregulation system and we as growers will get taken to the cleaners, but it seems almost the reverse.
“Feed wheat yesterday for instance, there were from my count 23 buyers operating with cash and about nine different pool operators with 18 different pool options for feed wheat.
“Cash prices ranged from $130 per tonne to $205 port basis.
“Die-hard pool participants never had so many pool choices, so they have their cake and can eat it too.”
I can also supply cash prices that will be much better than any so-called option under the CWB but the same old rhetoric will be used that cash prices cannot be compared to pooled prices so I won’t waste my time.
The frustration I, and many other western Canadian farmers have, is that it has been proven that an open/ dual market functions quite well in Eastern Canada and now Australia. Why it will not work here is beyond comprehension but that is what the CWB and its supporters would like us to believe.
For me it will take much more than an assertion or statement that the dual market system will not work. Actual numbers to prove that a dual market will not work will be required since it has been shown many times using actual cash values for wheat that the CWB does not return a premium for the wheat it expropriates from western Canadian farmers.
A plebiscite is not needed. An end to the CWB monopoly over western Canadian farmers is required so I can grow wheat that provides more choices and prices that are greater than what we currently receive.
Greg Petryshyn,Foam Lake, Sask.
