It’s official.
There’s no such thing as a dual market for grain.
The death notice comes from an unlikely source – the federal government’s task force on dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk authority.
Early in its 30-page report, the task force lays to rest the notion that farmers could be given the option of selling their wheat and barley on the open market while at the same time retaining a CWB with single desk powers.
“The term (dual market) implies to some that the existing marketing approach, a CWB with monopoly powers, could co-exist with an open market approach,” said the report’s authors.
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“This is not possible.”
The report said a preferable term is “marketing choice,” which implies an open market in which a restructured CWB would be just another grain company with no special marketing powers competing for business in that open market.
For the last 15 years or so, the dual market has been the term of choice for most groups and individuals campaigning for the ability of farmers to sell wheat and barley outside the CWB marketing system.
Single desk supporters have countered that the notion of a dual market was a myth designed to mislead farmers into believing they could continue to reap the benefits of a single desk in an open market environment.
CWB director Ian McCreary said the task force’s dismissal of the idea of a dual market was the one thing in the report he could agree with.
“There really isn’t any intellectually honest way to say anything other than that,” he said.
“The fact that they came out and said it is helpful to the discussion.”
McCreary said it will be clear now to farmers that they must choose either the single desk or the open market, and not a mythical hybrid of the two. If an open market is implemented, farmers who want to market their grain through a single desk will be denied that choice.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is one of the organizations that over the years have used the term dual market to describe their favoured marketing
option.
President Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel said it was a good idea for the task force to clarify the definition of the terms commonly used in the debate over the board’s future.
“There’s so many terms out there – open market, dual market, marketing choice, voluntary wheat board – and they all mean different things to different people.”
She said she agreed that a dual market, defined as a CWB with single desk powers operating in an open market environment, is impossible. However, she thinks the board can operate successfully as a voluntary grain company in an open market.
