More players are getting involved in promoting Canada’s grain and talking to overseas customers, which is expected to help avoid quality and consistency problems arising in the post-CWB era.
“We can have a true understanding of what the millers (in Asia) want, what they see (needed) in the future,” said Gary Stanford, chair of the Alberta Wheat Commission.
Canada’s new crop marketing missions are taking place now. Staff from the Canadian International Grains Institute and the Canadian Grain Commission are heading overseas along with others such as the Alberta Wheat Commission to talk to buyers.
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Only one or two of those parties would previously go overseas to describe a new crop and talk about how to use it, but the new approach includes more representatives of the Canadian grain industry.
“This year it really is a Team Canada effort,” said Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada, which brings together farmers and the rest of the cereals crop industry to oversee industry issues.
“We’re going out together, along with producers, in order to present a unified Canadian look at what our quality is this year.”
Dahl was leaving for Japan a few hours after a Nov. 7 interview as part of the new crop missions.
Canadian quality and consistency has always been highly valued and touted as a marketing edge, bringing more money for each bushel of crop farmers grow.
However, some worried when the CWB marketing monopoly was dismantled that its role in monitoring the performance of the system and keeping in constant contact with buyers could be lost, allowing that quality and marketing edge to weaken.
Those fears were revived recently when an Asian buyer said recent Canadian shipments had an unusually wide array of quality and consistency challenges.
Dahl said last year’s massive logistics problems caused long delays and problems getting the right products in place, but Canada’s grain quality standards and inspection are still important.
