The Manitoba Canola Growers Association is hearing from two other farm groups that take exception to its bid to include canola under the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing regime.
The Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association have made it clear they don’t want Manitoba growers to sell their canola through the CWB’s single desk.
The MCGA recently asked its grower-members if they are interested in such an option.
MCGA president Ed Rempel said if the response is favourable, the association will develop a plan and present it to the CWB.
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Jeff Pilatuik, president of the Saskatchewan canola growers, said his association does not share the Manitoba group’s views.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We are not supportive of this at all.”
He said the group’s policy is to support open marketing.
The wheat growers said it thinks the single desk would be bad for the canola industry.
“The WCWGA opposes the inclusion of canola marketing under the CWB until such time as the CWB is made voluntary and is divorced from government,” said a wheat growers news release.
President Kevin Bender said the threat of trade action is too great.
“Placing canola under the CWB, even on a voluntary basis, would jeopardize the phenomenal growth and success we’ve seen in the canola industry,” he said.
The CWB has been the subject of numerous trade actions from foreign competitors based on its single desk marketing system, he added, but that has never been the case for canola.
Private investment in canola research could be put at risk, as could government borrowing to guarantee CWB payments, subsidization of pool accounts through the wheat and barley accounts, and the government contingency fund.
The wheat growers association says it would support voluntary marketing of canola by the CWB under certain conditions:
• marketing of wheat and barley under the CWB is also voluntary;
• all financial ties to government are eliminated, including initial payments and borrowings;
• the wheat board is transformed into a private enterprise, such as a co-operative.
The wheat growers said canola growers could set up a voluntary marketing organization of their own and invite farmers to join.
For example, three canola pools, including a producer pool, offer voluntary canola pooling in Australia.
