REGINA – Saskatchewan commercial vegetable producers have voted overwhelmingly in favor of removing the mandatory checkoff levied by the Vegetable Producers of Saskatchewan.
Eighty-seven percent of the province’s fresh and seed market growers voted to make the levy voluntary and the agriculture minister said regulations will be changed to accommodate the decision.
“Part of the problem is, I think, this is a concern for many organizations, enforcing the mandatory checkoff,” Eric Upshall said.
He couldn’t predict how soon the regulations will be changed, but said the government would act in an “expedient manner.”
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The checkoff was implemented in 1988 when the association was established to help producers gather market information. It cost producers about $20 per planted acre.
The vegetable producers agreed last November to ask the government to conduct a vote on the future of the checkoff. The Saskat-chewan Agri-Food Council, which supervises producer groups that administer checkoffs, held the vote in March and the results were made available late last month.
Vegetable Producers of Saskat-chewan president Elwyn Vermette said the organization will carry on.
“When you have a very small number of producers to begin with, getting 100 percent agreement is very difficult so we’re probably a lot better off,” the Yorkton-area seed potato grower said.
There are about 34 commercial growers in the province who sell at least $10,000 worth of vegetables to wholesalers each year.
