The Globe and Mailfeatured an article recently entitled, “Grain firm Bunge welcomes end of wheat board.”
As if images of the giant U.S.-based grain trader ready to pounce further into Western Canada aren’t cringe-worthy enough, the article reports repugnant viewpoints from the company’s CEO, Alberto Weisser, who applauds Ottawa’s decision to turf the CWB.
Among his egregious opinions, Weisser remarks that other countries have eliminated board trade because “it’s not always well managed.”
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Fourteen international trade investigations of the CWB and the auditor general of Canada would all beg to disagree.
Since two-thirds of the CWB’s board of directors, who oversee the CWB’s operations, are elected farmers, it looks like what Weisser is really saying is that farmers are poor managers, presumably the same farmers he hopes to profit from.
He also notes that mostly less efficient farmers support the outdated board system.
Does that mean the vast majority of farmers who support the CWB single desk in election after election are all inefficient? This hardly seems fair, or credible.
If Weisser thinks that inefficient, archaic farmers back the CWB, then why, in his efficient world, is he asserting that he wants to deal with these people, post-CWB?
Furthermore, if Bunge is poised to enter this new world, then why isn’t their CEO also demonstrating some benefit to farmers by stating how much grain handling fees will drop because of this player arriving on the scene?
In reality, it doesn’t take a genius to envision a post-CWB world with massive companies ready to descend on a group that they perceive to be inefficient, easy targets from which corporate profits can be taken.
Moreover, the thought of a U.S.-based behemoth like Bunge providing the same level of service and commitment to farmers that the CWB has for decades seems unlikely.
Like the other grain companies, Bunge can barely wait for the change. Understandably, prairie farmers aren’t reciprocating the same sentiment.
Don Dutchak,Rama, Sask.
