Dear Canadian Wheat Board member: best of luck holding the status quo with single desk selling. The CWB has earned that luck.
When all this began around 1970, the CWB had a very different business model than it has now. Since then, not only has the board consistently generated premiums for producers, it has connected with the quality concerns of consumers better than any other bulk commodity trader.
I believe the CWB’s business model includes responsiveness to the needs of any producer’s business requirements better than any other bulk trader not using the CWB’s business model could hope to do, with timeliness of cash flows and fairness in the market.
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The board has been a powerful force holding back a competitive race to the bottom among producers that is in the financial interest of and all too often characterizes other traders.
I think a fair argument can be made that the board’s single desk has helped to hold up farmgate prices for producers of wheat and competing grains and grain products worldwide, while never relenting on providing quality standards consumers have a right to expect.
Without the board’s single desk, individual producers are left to the mercy of the world’s four large traders whose business model is loaded with costs and an unresponsiveness to consumer requirements for safe, nutritious, plentiful and affordable food. The safety concerns seem all too often to deal with the simple test of toxicity. Is the food toxic? No. Then it can be defined as food. Nutrition and aesthetics may not be considered at all.
Consumers need the transparent accountability of the board as much as producers. Consumers and producers have a joint interest in the board’s success in holding onto the single desk.
Mike Klein,Calgary, Alta.
