Uncertainty over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board is damaging relations with important overseas customers, says the board’s chief executive officer.
And that could threaten the ability of prairie grain farmers to secure long-term access to some of those markets.
“It’s the first issue they want to talk about when we meet,” said Adrian Measner.
“They’re talking to us as a business partner and they need to know whether we’ll be there for them in the future, because they have to do their planning too.”
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The federal government plans to end the board’s monopoly on exports of wheat and barley and replace it with an open market in which any individual or grain company could make export sales.
Measner said in an interview this week that given tight global wheat supplies, this is an ideal time to be negotiating long-term supply arrangements with overseas buyers.
The board is more than willing to have such discussions, but customers aren’t.
“It’s very difficult to do that in this environment,” he said. “This isn’t healthy for our organization, for Canada and certainly not for farmers.”
Measner declined to identify specific cases, citing customer confidentiality. He also said it’s difficult to say whether any potential sales have actually been lost because of uncertainty about the board’s ability to execute sales down the road.
But buyers are asking the board what’s going on and why Canada would want to change its marketing system.
“Our customers are very supportive and very appreciative of the system we have in place,” he said. “They feel they’ve been well-served from a customer service perspective and like the products and services they receive from us.”
Some buyers have even asked whether there is anything they can do to persuade the government to change its mind.
“We don’t have good answers to that,” said Measner, noting that the government doesn’t seem interested in looking at those kinds of broad issues.
The best way to deal with the uncertainty and confusion among customers is for the government to hold a farmer plebiscite as quickly as possible and settle the issue once and for all, he said.
Measner had strong words for Canadian grain handling companies who have been telling CWB customers they are ready to step in when the wheat board is gone. While that may be prudent from a company’s narrow business perspective, it’s not good for farmers.
“From a Canadian perspective, I find it very alarming and very disturbing, because it just builds the uncertainty about whether the CWB can be a long-term partner,” he said.
Again, he declined to identify which customers had been contacted or which Canadian companies were involved.
