Farmers across Canada could learn a lesson from their counterparts in Quebec, the president of L’Union des Producteurs Agricoles told a farm income symposium in Regina last week.
Laurent Pellerin said Quebec farmers had to learn to work together to gain market power and boost their incomes after several disastrous years.
But he said it isn’t an easy process.
“A lot of farmers are not ready to pay the price,” he said in a telephone interview before the meeting hosted by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan. “You lose a little bit of your individual power.”
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For example, maple syrup producers cut their production by 25 percent in the last two years in order to maintain price levels. That involved getting 7,300 farmers to agree.
Most of them are quite satisfied with how their plan worked, said Pellerin.
In the rabbit industry, 50 producers negotiated slaughter payments on a weekly basis rather than waiting 17 weeks.
Working co-operatively is nothing new, Pellerin pointed out, and Quebec farmers are learning to value the power they have gained. He urged others to get organized.
“Individual farmers say you want to manage my farm,” he said. “You have to go back to the future. The power in farmers was better” when they first formed the large agricultural co-ops last century.
Pellerin said the need for market power is clear, especially given what’s happening at world trade talks. If large companies have their way, farmers will end up as workers, not owners.
Wayne Easter, parliamentary secretary to federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell, said other countries are attacking the tools that actually give Canadian farmers power – the Canadian Wheat Board and supply management.
“Farmer empowerment is not about allowing other countries to decide how we market our product,” added Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen.
Pellerin said farmers across Canada don’t have to copy Quebec’s model but he hoped to inspire some of them to adapt some aspects in their own provinces and commodities.
Quebec has the advantage of a larger population and customer base but the agricultural sector doesn’t have a lot of support from those people, he said.
Western Canada’s advantage is that people are closer to farmers and recognize the impact of farming on the economy.
He urged farmers to work together in marketing, transportation and negotiation.
“When farmers get together, we build a bargaining power with distributors and processors,” he said.
APAS president Terry Hildebrandt said the symposium goal was to work toward real change that results in producer profitability. It was the latest in a series of similar meetings being held across Canada.
