When there are 250 farmers in the room and the subject is barley marketing, you might expect some fireworks.
That wasn’t the case when farmers jammed a meeting room at the Canadian Wheat Board’s Crop Production Week meeting in Saskatoon to hear about the agency’s new malting barley marketing program.
The board’s plan, called CashPlus, was officially unveiled Jan. 9, triggering a flurry of strongly worded statements from open market supporters and the federal minister of agriculture denouncing the plan.
But there was none of that from the 250 farmers.
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They were more interested in hearing about the plan, asking questions to find out exactly how it will work and trying to figure out whether it would work for them.
There were positive and negative comments, but the atmosphere was sober and serious.
That’s what CWB officials were hoping for and that’s how they hope future discussions about the program will be conducted.
“There were no grandstanding speeches that had nothing do with the substance of what we were discussing,” said CWB chair Ken Ritter.
“I thought the crowd was serious and business-like and appreciative of the explanations and the thoroughness of the presentation.”
The board wants discussions about CashPlus to focus on the nuts and bolts of the plan, and not become political.
The basic rules of CashPlus are as follows:
- The board will provide farmers the opportunity to lock in a guaranteed minimum cash price for their malting barley, pre- or post-harvest.
- The contract will reflect the price at which the board is selling malting barley to overseas and domestic buyers, the same as nonboard crops sold on the open market. The price will change as markets and prices change.
- The contract will be signed by the farmer, the board and the selecting company. Farmers will be free to negotiate premiums or discounts with the selector.
- Any revenue from sales of contracted malting barley above the contract prices will be pooled and returned to contract holders on a per tonne basis at the end of the marketing year.
- The board will continue to operate the traditional malting barley pool alongside CashPlus, giving farmers their choice between the two marketing systems.
“This answers concerns about personal and business freedom, while maintaining the strength of the organization and the single desk,” said Ritter.
The board intends to roll out the program within a few weeks on a limited basis with an as-yet-unknown number of business partners.
The hope is that farmers will respond positively to the program, thus pressuring more companies to offer it.
The Malting Industry Association of Canada and the Western Grain Elevators Association have both rejected the program, saying it doesn’t provide clear, accurate and fully transparent price signals to producers.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz issued a statement critical of the program and the CWB, dismissing it as a “diversion” aimed at allowing the board to retain an “out-of-touch, centrally-controlled monopoly.”
A number of farm groups that support the open market also turned thumbs down on CashPlus.
“Producers will not support a half measure of mimicking a cash market while maintaining a pooling structure,” said WBGA president Jeff Nielsen.
That view was echoed by the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and the Market Choice Alliance.
However, other farm organizations, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Keystone Agricultural Producers and the National Farmers Union, said farmers should be given a chance to try out CashPlus to see if it provides them with financial benefits.
“This is a new idea and like any new idea it should be given time to prove itself before people start to criticize,” said CFA president Bob Friesen.
