The Canadian Wheat Board could do a better job of marketing canola than the canola industry, says a group of Manitoba farmers.
They have been pushing the Manitoba Canola Growers Association and the wheat board to consider having the board set up a voluntary pool for canola sales.
“We don’t think there’s anybody aggressively selling export canola,” said farmer Jim Green after the MCGA annual meeting during Manitoba Ag Days In Brandon.
“We’re recommending that somebody else, (for example) the Canadian Wheat Board, on a voluntary basis, market canola.”
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Green and like-minded farmers proposed a resolution at the meeting calling on the MCGA to consider all options for boosting canola marketing so that farmers’ prices can be improved.
Although the resolution does not specifically mention the wheat board, it was the focus of the arguments during and after the meeting.
No farmers argued against the resolution, which did not commit the association to any particular proposal, nor did pro-free market members raise an objection. Afterward, some quietly chuckled about what they considered to be a hare-brained scheme to involve the wheat board in another crop.
Others were more optimistic.
Former CWB director Butch Harder, who won a director’s seat with the MCGA at the meeting, said in an interview that he’s not sure if a voluntary canola pool could work or is legally possible.
“A voluntary system cannot be as effective as a monopoly,” said Harder, who added there might still be benefits.
“The wheat board could do something for them on basis levels, could arrange transportation, and it could (give the board) more than just wheat to sell.”
Green and others met with wheat board officials before the meeting, including chief executive officer Adrian Measner and farmer directors Bill Nicholson and Bill Toews.
Wheat board spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry said management and directors met with the farmers’ group, but that does not imply an endorsement of the idea. The board meets often with farmers who want to talk about new ideas.
Some canola growers have long called for the wheat board to market canola. But canola grower organizations have been dominated by free market thinkers who shy away from government or regulatory interference in the industry.
Green’s group’s approach to the wheat board was done without MCGA involvement. He and his colleagues have also contacted other farm groups across the Prairies to talk about the idea.
Green believes the board could not include canola in its mandate without first getting approval from the federal government. That would probably not happen unless a farmer group, such as the MCGA, officially requested it.
Canola Council of Canada president Barb Isman cautioned farmers against thinking a lack of marketing and salesmanship is the reason for low canola prices.
The council and grain company marketers are active in overseas markets trying to boost sales, but discriminatory tariffs and other trade barriers cripple canola’s access in most foreign markets.
“Is what was proposed (in the resolution) going to resolve opening the EU market and opening the Chinese market?” said Isman.
“We’ve been in Japan; we’ve been in Dubai; we’ve been in China; we’ve been in Pakistan. The problem is that we have artificially low market access.”
