Corporate interests forming grains council | The Barley Council of Canada intends to go it alone if necessary
Plans to establish a national barley council are moving ahead, but it remains to be seen whether the council’s membership will include grain handling companies.
Brian Otto, a barley grower from Warner, Alta., said the Barley Council of Canada’s working group has conducted an industry survey and will soon begin work on a draft business plan.
Otto and other barley council proponents — including the Alberta Barley Commission — had hoped to establish a national council whose membership consists of all stakeholders in the Canadian barley industry, including growers, processors, maltsters, grain handlers and feeders.
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However, Canada’s largest grain handling companies have decided not to support the initiative.
Instead, the Western Grain Elevators Association, which represents the country’s largest grain handling companies, is supporting an alternative plan to form a national cereals council that represents all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and rye as well as barley.
Proponents of the cereal council, including grain companies, life science companies, processors and farm organizations, have held several planning meetings and have requested the participation of other participants.
JoAnne Buth, a Manitoba senator and former president of the Canola Council of Canada, has served as a facilitator.
WGEA executive director Wade Sobkowich said members of his organization see more value in creating a council that deals with issues affecting multiple commodity groups.
The formation of individual councils for each crop type would be less efficient and more costly, he added.
“We think that there’s a better way to (represent the cereals industry), and that means having an organizational structure that ensures that each commodity group is given its due attention but where we can draw on common resources within the organization (to deal with issues) that cross over the different commodity types,” Sobkowich said.
Otto, who was named chair of the barley council’s working group in early September, said his group is aware of the WGEA-endorsed initiative but has chosen to go its own way.
“Initially, we had (been involved in the cereals council plan), but we informed them that we were going to form a national barley council of Canada and that certainly, we would be willing to participate with them down the road,” said Otto.
“But at this point in time, our main focus is to get the Barley Council of Canada up and running.”
Otto said a council that deals specifically with barley-related issues would be more responsive to industry needs and give barley growers a greater voice in important decisions.
The apparent rift that has developed between the barley council and the WGEA comes as Western Canada’s grain industry undergoes significant change.
The elimination of single-desk marketing means the CWB no longer collects and administers wheat and barley checkoffs.
In addition, federal funding for plant breeding programs and cereal research has been reduced, meaning primary producers will likely be expected to cover a larger portion of Western Canada’s overall cereal research budget.
Provincial wheat and barley commissions responsible for collecting producer checkoffs have already been established in Alberta and Saskatchewan or are in the process of being formed.
Doug Chorney, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said Manitoba is also moving in that direction.
Many grain industry insiders say the formation of provincial wheat and barley commissions as well as national wheat and barley councils would form the backbone of a new producer-based funding model that collects checkoffs from growers and allocates them in an orderly and co-ordinated manner.
However, the rift between barley council advocates and the proposed cereal council suggests that competing interests are battling to ensure they have a greater say in future funding decisions.
Sobkowich said the cereal council proposal was not put forward in an adversarial manner. It simply illustrates that different groups have different perceptions of how the new funding environment should be structured.
“We have our own opinion, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t respect the views of others,” Sobkowich said.
