While saying it doesn’t prefer one grain marketing system over another, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is a member of an industry organization lobbying for an end to single desk marketing.
The pool, along with Western Canada’s other major grain companies, is a member of Grain Vision. The recently incorporated organization promotes a more commercial, deregulated agriculture sector, including introduction of a dual or open market for wheat and barley.
Grain Vision has taken on a prominent role in the marketing debate in recent months and was one of a number of pro-dual market groups invited to meet with agriculture and CWB minister Chuck Strahl in Saskatoon July 27.
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The pool has been careful not to take a public position in favour of either the single desk or open market.
And despite its membership in Grain Vision, the company continued to adopt that stance last week.
“I don’t want to come out and say we prefer one or the other,” said Fran Malecha, head of the pool’s grains group, adding membership in Grain Vision doesn’t equate to support for a dual market. “We feel we can do very well in either marketing environment.”
At the same time, he said, the government has made it clear that a dual market is going to be brought in and the only things to be determined are how and when.
He said the grain industry in general, and the pool in particular, are ready for any change.
“We feel we’re well positioned in the industry today with competitive assets and marketing skills in both domestic and international markets,” he said.
The pool has recently established business relationships with two large international grain players – Toepfer International and Mitsui and Co. – to improve its access to overseas buyers and customers.
Malecha said farmers are better educated and informed and are quite capable of selling their wheat and barley into an open market, as they do canola and other non-board commodities.
He also said the pool is prepared to work with the CWB in an open market environment to ensure that farmers who want to sell through a voluntary board are well served.
Malecha said that while the pool’s farmer customers are probably evenly split on the grain marketing issue, he thinks farmers generally prefer an environment in which they have more choice and more competition.
At the end of the day, it’s up to farmers and government to decide what kind of marketing system will be in place, he said.
