A new national organization has been formed to deal with issues affecting Canada’s cereal grains industry.
Cereals Canada was recently incorporated and is billed as a multi-commodity organization that aims to enhance the competitiveness of all Canadian cereal grains, including wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale.
Jean-Marc Ruest, a senior vice-president with Richardson International, said the new organization will represent the interests of three main stakeholder groups.
“We essentially have three groups of members, one being producers, one being life science and seed companies and the other sector being handlers, exporters and processors,” said Ruest, one of three founding directors with the new organization.
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The group plans 18 directors, six from each of the three sub groups.
Ruest said a search is also underway for a president to oversee the organization’s day to day activities and hopes to have the organization functioning before the end of the year.
The organization will be positioned to advise government on issues that affect the industry, such as changes to varietal registration and funding priorities in cereal grain research, he said.
The founders have also identified market development and promotion as an area where Cereals Canada could play an important role.
Efforts to create an all-encompassing cereals organization began last year when industry stakeholders met to discuss the formation of a national cereals council.
Ruest did not share details of the organization’s operational budget but said financial contributions will come from the three stakeholder groups.
The organization hopes to work with provincial cereal commissions, including new wheat and barley commissions that are being established on the Prairies.
“I think those commissions, as they come on line, are going to be very involved with Cereals Canada,” he said.
“The commissions will be involved … with respect to the direction of producer funds so they will be a strong source of the producer’s voice at Cereals Canada.”
The organization also hopes to work with other national commodity groups, including the Barley Council of Canada, which was recently formed to deal with barley issues.
“We are to a certain extent in uncharted territory here as we build our respective organizations, so I think the key really is going to be communications between the various groups,” Ruest said.
Alberta Wheat Commission chair Kent Erickson, another founding director with Cereals Canada, said he has no concerns about farmer interests being lost or ignored by other stakeholder groups.
He said the group’s overarching objective is to ensure Canada’s entire cereal grains industry remains competitive.
“With changes to the Canadian Wheat Board Act and the way the industry is going now, we really needed a place or a forum where all of the industry could come together and discuss issues that are specific to cereals,” said Erickson.
“We don’t have to agree on everything, but we need to have a place where we can come together with some funds to back us to try and solve some of the problems that we’re facing now with the changes we’ve had in the industry.”
