Check-off plan for mustard almost ready

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Published: October 17, 2002

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.”

About the author

Adrian Ewins

Saskatoon newsroom

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