SASKATOON – A proposal to take unlicensed wheat varieties away from the Canadian Wheat Board simply won’t work, say the board and the Canadian Grain Commission.
The two agencies took the unusual step last week of issuing a joint statement rejecting the Western Grain Marketing Panel’s recommendation to exempt unlicensed varieties from the board’s export authority.
And officials from both agencies say they’ll be taking that message directly to federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale.
The grain marketing panel suggested setting up a system under which individual farmers and grain merchants could export unlicensed varieties of wheat using a so-called “identity-preserved” system.
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But Milt Wakefield, chief commissioner of the grain commission, the agency responsible for maintaining the quality standards and licensing system for Canadian grain, said that would jeopardize Canada’s grain quality control system, which he described as “the envy of the world.”
There is no machine or equipment that can identify different varieties of wheat, so any identity-preserved system would have to be based on some sort of affidavit or declaration. And that kind of system leaves itself open to abuse.
“This recommendation, if implemented, would encourage misrepresentation of registered and non-registered varieties,” Wakefield said in a press release. “An (identity preserved) system cannot monitor or control misrepresentation of varieties … (it) can only monitor grain that is properly identified.”
Wakefield was unavailable for an interview last week.
Hurt reputation
Commission spokesperson Paul Graham said just a few incidents of misrepresentation would cause domestic and export customers to lose faith in the integrity of the Canadian quality control system, which has always been based on rigorous science.
“Ninety-nine percent plus of your shipments can be perfect and you can still get clobbered,” said Graham.
There is also a question of fairness, said CWB information officer Rhea Yates. When spot prices south of the border are higher than the board’s pooled price, some farmers might be tempted to pass off a registered variety as unregistered in order to ship it directly to the U.S.
Benefit only a few
“Those operating outside the system, a minority for sure, would benefit the most and that seems unfair,” she said.
The commission said the proposal would also undermine the varietal registration process, which it described as a cornerstone of the quality assurance system.
There will be a financial incentive in some circumstances for commercial plant breeders to release unregistered varieties, thus saving the time and money involved in achieving registration.
Shortly after the panel’s report was released, Wakefield told The Western Producer that an identity-preserved system for unlicensed wheats could be successful as long as everybody in the industry acted responsibly.
Graham said last week’s statement doesn’t represent any change in the commission’s position.
“I think he was saying you’d need an extraordinarily high level of accountability. After reviewing all of the things that would have to be in place for this kind of a system to function, it’s not workable or practical.”
The wheat board has used similar arguments to criticize the panel’s recommendation to put feed barley on the open market while leaving malting barley under the board’s sales monopoly. However, last week’s statement from the grain commission made no mention of that.
