The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association isn’t about to stop going public with its complaints about the Canadian Wheat Board.
Wheat board officials say they’d prefer to sit down with association members and have a “constructive” dialogue about grain marketing issues, rather than engage in a debate through press releases and media interviews.
But wheat growers president Larry Maguire said while he’d be happy to meet behind closed doors with the board, the public comments will continue.
“We’re into a discussion of whether farmers should have a right to sell their own grain and we have to let our membership know where we’re at with the process,” he said. “If we feel we need to put a press release out, we will.”
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On Oct. 2 the wheat growers issued an open letter to CWB chief commissioner Lorne Hehn complaining the board had mismanaged wheat sales last spring, missed out on high prices, and cost farmers hundreds of million of dollars.
The association asked Hehn to respond to nine specific questions about its marketing strategy. The chief commissioner replied in a personal letter to Maguire Oct. 23, but the board declined to release the letter publicly.
In the letter, which was eventually made public by the wheat growers, Hehn closed by noting he has followed “with great interest” the association’s press releases about CWB grain marketing.
“Perhaps a more constructive approach would be for you and your executive to meet directly with our marketing people to discuss and clarify any further concerns,” he said.
The wheat growers responded by issuing another press release Oct. 31, saying Hehn’s answers provided “little comfort” and re-iterating their charge that the board bungled.
In an interview, Maguire said the association will likely take Hehn up on his offer for a face-to-face meeting on the subject.
Factual issue
“I don’t have any problem meeting with the board,” he said. “It’s not a personal issue, it’s one of facts.”
CWB information officer Deanna Allen said Hehn was disappointed the wheat growers had chosen to respond to his personal letter by issuing another press release, adding the association seems more interested in advancing its political agenda than having a real dialogue.
“I don’t think they’re interested in what Mr. Hehn suggested, to take a more constructive approach to try to get information out to farmers,” she said. “It’s become quite juvenile … a yes-you-did, no-I-didn’t type of argument.”
In his letter, Hehn said the agency sold as much 1995 wheat and durum as it could have when the market was at its peak.
“The CWB aggressively marketed grain throughout the market rally last spring based upon available demand, logistical capacity and tonnage contracted for delivery,” he said.
As for the wheat growers’ charge that the board’s high pool return outlook last spring led farmers to seed more wheat, thus creating a “misallocation of resources,” Hehn said farmers in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Argentina also increased wheat acreage in response to a strong price outlook.
The wheat growers association said the board should have used futures markets to lock in a large portion of the 1996 crop at market peaks. Hehn said the board priced as much grain as it could, given the fact that many buyers had dropped out of the market. He added there are limits to how much grain can be priced in futures and options markets at any one time.
Maguire said the association stands by its view that the board could do more to manage farmers’ risk by using futures markets to lock in high prices.
