EDMONTON (Staff) – The Alberta Agriculture-sponsored report on the Canadian Wheat Board will make a good addition to the debate on the future of grain marketing, said a member of the panel studying the issue.
“This study looked at the cost side of single-desk selling. The (Daryl) Kraft study looked at the benefits. Both are important,” said Jack Gorr, a farmer and a member of the federal government’s Western Grain Marketing Panel.
“We would of had to do it if Carter hadn’t done it,” said Gorr after a verbal presentation of the report by its authors.
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Colin Carter, a professor from the University of California at Davis and Al Loyns, a farmer and agriculture economist from Manitoba were commissioned by the provincial government to study the costs to farmers of having the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on export sales of wheat and barley.
Report coming
A formal presentation of the report is to be made to the marketing panel in Winnipeg later this month.
“We will look at the details of both studies and meet with the consultants and further question them. If we have doubts with some of it, it will have to be further supported,” said Gorr.
The Canadian Wheat Board sponsored a study and asked three prairie economists to look at the benefits of the board for farmers. That study was released last month.
Gorr said both studies will form part of a package to help the marketing panel make recommendations on the marketing system of the future.
