RENO, Nevada – U.S. wheat industry leaders say they support Canadian farmers who want to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on grain sales to the U.S.
While saying they don’t want to interfere in the debate now under way in Canada about the future of the grain marketing system, farm organization officials aren’t reluctant to say where their sympathies lie.
“If people want to be able to sell to the board, they ought to be able to,” said Winston Wilson, president of U.S. Wheat Associates. “But if they want to be able to sell to Cargill or Continental or whoever, they ought to be able to do that too.”
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Won’t get involved
Wilson said he will express an opinion on the subject on his home turf, but he’s not going to get directly involved in the policy review going on in Canada.
“I’m not going to go up there and lobby the government,” he said. “That’s where you draw the line. That’s not our job.”
Chuck Merja, newly elected president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said he won’t lobby for changes either.
But he said he sympathizes with Canadian farmers who want direct access to the U.S. market and can’t get it.
NAWG has on its books a policy stating that any wheat or barley imported into the U.S. should be purchased directly from individual private producers, not state trading agencies or marketing boards.
“I support that fully,” said Merja, who farms at Sun River, Mont. “As far as cross-border trade, it’s pretty clear that we support farmers, whether Canadians or Americans, to be able to sell as private individuals.”
Wilson said an end to the board’s control over sales to the U.S. would just recognize the inevitable.
“One day we’re going to have a North American wheat market. There’s no way you’re going to stop that, it’s going to happen and we might as well get ready for it.”
He said if an alternative market was available to Canadian wheat growers, it would provide some much-needed discipline to the board’s pricing practices.
Wilson said U.S. farmers might initially react against the sight of individual Canadian farmers selling in the U.S. in great numbers, but over the long term they’ll accept it.
After dominating NAWG conventions in recent years, Canada-U.S. grain trade issues took a back seat this year.
“I don’t think the Canadian issue was talked about as much,” said Butch Harder, attending the convention on behalf of the CWB’s producer advisory committee.
Other Canadians in attendance also noticed the difference. Warren Jolly, a Saskatchewan farmer and vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said he couldn’t remember the last time the atmosphere was so friendly and co-operative.
The U.S. farmers were preoccupied with the debate over their own Farm Bill. In addition, changed market conditions have eased pressure at the border and high prices have everybody in a good mood.
