Western Producer reporter Sean Pratt attended the Commodity Classic, a gathering of 4,000 American wheat, corn and soybean growers in Florida last week, to see what Canadian farmers might expect from their southern neighbours.
TAMPA, Florida – U.S. farm groups are bemused and encouraged by the Canadian Wheat Board battle being waged north of the border.
It was one of the featured topics of debate when the presidents of the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association and National Association of Wheat Growers addressed the 3,974 delegates and 101 media members attending the 2007 Commodity Classic conference.
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“That’s a screwy deal up there,” said moderator John Phipps, host of a popular American farm TV show.
“Their government is attacking the wheat board. How do you see that playing out?” he asked Dale Schuler, who was NAWG president at the time of the conference.
Schuler told the audience that half of Canadian producers like the board and half hate it.
“The government is just listening to a lot of their producers,” he said.
When asked to weigh in on the debate, Schuler said he would like to see the board lose its single desk status.
“There could be opportunities created for U.S. farmers to access markets in Canada and we can access their transportation systems as well,” he told delegates.
Alan Tracey, president of the export and promotion agency U.S. Wheat Associates, said dismantling the board’s marketing powers would usher in a new era of co-operation between the world’s two main producers of high quality milling wheat.
“If we eliminated this barrier between us via our different marketing systems, it would open the opportunity for us to work together on market development and promotion on spring wheat and durum wheat.”
Tracy said the CWB has been a long-running trade irritant for U.S. wheat farmers because while the board achieves premium prices for Canadian growers where it can, it also undercuts the market in many regions of the world.
“We find that to be a very frustrating practice for us and trade distorting,” he said.
While both wheat groups acknowledge that the decision on the CWB is in the hands of Canadian growers, they will be watching the barley plebiscite with interest, hoping it will be the first step in getting rid of the board’s export monopoly on wheat.
Tracy doesn’t envision much U.S. wheat being sold into Canada in a post-single desk environment, but he could see it flowing through Canadian ports on its way to export markets and vice versa.
Schuler also commented on the potential to tap into Canada’s transportation network.
“There are concerns about the rail system on both sides of the border, but we’ve seen some lower rates across the border, which might help us move grain,” he said in an interview before the general session panel discussion.
If the board lost its single desk status, Schuler said U.S. wheat would be more competitive in markets such as Asia, the Middle East and Central America, where the two countries go head to head.
