Saskatchewan’s mustard growers will soon be asked to squeeze out a few
more dollars to spice up their industry’s future.
If the provincial government approves the industry’s plan, producers
will begin paying a checkoff equal to 0.5 percent of the total revenue
from their crop in March 2003.
The checkoff, which will be mandatory but refundable, will cost
producers an average of about $120-$125 a year and raise a total of
$350,000 annually to finance the new Saskatchewan Mustard Development
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Commission.
While the checkoff will take money out of producers’ pockets,
eventually it should put even more money back in, said an industry
official.
“The goal of the commission will be to increase revenue per acre,” said
Bill Greuel, a provincial government oilseed specialist who helped the
growers develop the plan.
It will try to do that by spending in three different areas: research
into developing new and better varieties and fighting pests that can
cut into yields; market development, with a focus on looking at new
uses for mustard; and extension work to provide farmers with the latest
information to do a better job of growing a crop.
Mustard growers attending last January’s annual meeting of the
Saskatchewan Mustard Growers Association approved the check-off plan by
a vote of 50 to zero.
The association submitted an initial version of the check-off scheme to
the province’s Agri-Food Council this summer.
The plan is now being refined and will be resubmitted to the council in
November for formal approval. The minister of agriculture must also
approve it, although that is considered a formality.
“I’m very confident we’ll get that because we had such overwhelming
support at regional meetings and at our annual meeting,” said Greuel.
Mustard industry officials say raising money through a checkoff is the
only way their relatively tiny industry can compete with wheat, barley,
canola and other major crops for the time and attention of crop
researchers.
The group devising the check-off proposal considered setting the levy
rate at 0.75 percent of total revenue, which would have raised 50
percent more money than a 0.5 percent levy.
“But we felt it was responsible to start out small and make sure that
we do things right,” said Greuel. “Five or six years down the road we
can always increase it if growers deem it necessary.”
The mustard growers won’t be able to afford a full-time executive
director or administrative staff. Instead, the group has made an
arrangement with the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission to
provide administrative services while the mustard commission gets up
and running. Those plans are to be finalized at an Oct. 22 meeting.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Saskatchewan farmers grow mustard each year,
seeding an average of about 175 acres.
Total mustard plantings have averaged 478,000 acres over the past 10
years, with 600,000 acres seeded in 2002.
Greuel said the industry has no desire to use the checkoff to try to
attract more growers or increase total production.
Saskatchewan produces about 89 percent of the mustard grown in Canada,
which translates into about 43 percent of world production. An
estimated 70 percent of all the mustard traded in world markets is
grown in the province.
“We have a very large impact on price,” he said. “So if the aim was to
increase acres and production, we’d drive the price down very, very
quickly.”
