SASKATOON – Some of those who say they want to save the Canadian Wheat Board may end up destroying it, says a former commissioner.
“They’d sooner take a chance on losing it all instead of having a reasonable compromise,” Ken Beswick said in an interview the day after he resigned.
Beswick last week became the first wheat board commissioner to leave the agency over a policy disagreement. His last day was April 30.
He left because the board wouldn’t agree to buy barley based on the daily cash market price, rather than the current price pooling system. Beswick said that is the only way the marketing agency will gain credibility in the feed barley market.
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“It was an issue that I felt very, very strongly about,” he said.
No compromise on pooling
Beswick said there is a “very narrow fringe” element in the Canadian grain industry that rejects out of hand any hint of compromise on the issue of price pooling.
And he warned if changes aren’t made, the pressures to replace the board’s export monopoly on feed barley with a completely open market could become irresistible.
“I think we are heading to that if we don’t figure out some other way of providing effective price arbitrage for the open market and at the same time figure out a way for the board to get the barley it needs for the export market,” he said.
The last two years have shown the board can’t compete for feed barley when it has only a pooled price to offer farmers.
“It has cost farmers incredible amounts of money the last two years by sourcing barley on a pooled price basis,” he said. “Big-time money.”
Beswick said he thought the board was ready to support daily cash pricing and was taken aback when it told the Grain Marketing Review Panel it wanted to offer a cash price on an “emergency basis” only.
“That’s nowhere near good enough,” he said, adding that since three-quarters of the barley sold in Western Canada is priced on a daily cash basis, it must be acceptable to the majority of the industry.
In the interview, Beswick said:
- His resignation should not be interpreted as a blanket condemnation of the board, its staff or the idea of single-desk selling.
- Farmers benefit greatly from the board’s export monopoly on wheat, durum and malting barley. As for feed barley, the board could remain the sole exporter to the U.S. if it adopts daily cash pricing. If not, it probably shouldn’t.
- The board must try to serve all farmers, including those who operate primarily in the domestic market in southern Alberta.
- To survive, the board must be more accountable to farmers.
Beswick’s contract with the board prohibits him from working in the grain industry for the next two years but he said he will continue speaking out on public issues, especially barley pricing.
