The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association says the Canadian Wheat Board is spending too much time campaigning against the Estey report and not enough time selling wheat and barley.
Picking up on a recent editorial in the National Post newspaper, the wheat growers hammered the board for its slow sales pace this year.
“With farmers desperately short of cash, the board seems to place a higher priority on protecting its political turf than in selling our grain,” said vice-president Ted Menzies in a news release.
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“If the board is withholding grain in anticipation of higher prices, that’s speculation, and they’re doing it with farmers’ money.”
But the chief executive officer of the wheat board said the lobby group spokespersons “seem to be trying to inhale and exhale at the same time.”
In a written statement, Greg Arason said the board chose a carefully timed and executed sales strategy this year designed to get premiums for the high-quality, high-protein wheat crop rather than a “sell it at any price” high-volume strategy.
In the fall of 1998, when wheat prices hit bottom, the wheat board gave up some of its throughput capacity so other grains enjoying a better market, like canola, could move forward, said Arason.
The board had less grain to sell this year, so it decided to first serve “loyal, long-term” customers who take grain deliveries steadily over the course of the crop year.
Arason said the WCWGA seems to have “switched horses” to criticizing the wheat board for not “pursuing a ‘sell it at any price’ strategy” from its traditional complaint that the board doesn’t get the best price for farmers.
The commentary that spurred the debate was written by Morris Dorosh, editor of Agriweek and Agriline newsletters.
Harvey Brooks, an agricultural economist at the University of Alberta, said buyers will likely use the article against the wheat board in price negotiations. The article made the wheat board look desperate to sell stocks, said Brooks, who used to work for the board.
“This stuff gets around,” he said, noting embassies will likely clip the article and send it home to wheat buyers.
