It cost farmers more last year to export all commodities tracked by the federal grain monitor.
The grain monitor calculates these costs using the export basis, which represents its assessment of the average total logistical costs paid by producers to move their grain from farm to export vessel.
It includes freight, elevation, trucking and Canadian Wheat Board pool costs, and takes into account savings achieved through CWB tendering, railway and terminal rebates, and shipping penalties or premiums.
In its report, released last week, the monitoring agency calculated that the export basis in 2007-08 increased by seven percent for wheat, 11 percent for durum, 17 percent for canola and 38 percent for large yellow peas.
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Over the past 10 years, the wheat basis has increased by 23.9 percent, durum by 24.9 percent, canola by 1.8 percent and peas by 56.2 percent.
Mark Hemmes of Quorum Corp., which serves as grain monitor, cautioned against comparing the results for the various grains.
“The problem is the methodologies for the board and non-board grains are totally different,” he said. “The absolute numbers are not comparable.”
He said the basis numbers for CWB wheat and durum are derived from a highly detailed cost accounting, made possible by the vast amounts of price and cost information that the board collects.
That same kind of detail is not available for canola or peas.
“The canola number is much less precise versus wheat,” Hemmes said.
He said the numbers published in the report are open to misinterpretation, whether accidental or deliberate. It may appear that the long-term trend numbers indicate the CWB is less efficient and more costly for farmers when it comes to transportation and handling, but Hemmes said that’s not a fair comment.
The numbers indicate that per tonne financial returns to the producer (or the producer netback as it’s called in the report) of wheat, durum, canola and large yellow peas have all improved significantly since the monitoring began in 1999-2000. The increases range from 73.4 percent for peas to 185.4 percent for durum.
In all cases, most of those increases came as a result of higher market prices, particularly in 2007-08.
The export basis typically accounts for about 25 percent of the proceeds from a grain sale but has little effect on the total netback.
The report said shippers of CWB grain benefit much more from trucking premiums and rail transportation savings such as tendering than do canola or pea shippers.
It also notes that the export basis can vary sharply among different regions across the Prairies.
The monitor’s annual report also provides a plethora of statistics on grain production, shipping volumes, elevator numbers, rail line infrastructure and system efficiency and reliability.
The complete report can be viewed in the “reports” section at www.quorumcorp.net.
