Who wins in the dual marketing duel? - Opinion

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Dodds writes from North Augusta, Ont., and obtained the Jarvis quotes from the book From Prairie Roots by Garry Fairbairn.

Former chief commissioner of the Canadian Wheat Board, Esmond Jarvis, summed up the fallacy of dual marketing of grain 25 years ago at a speech to Saskatchewan Wheat Pool members in Saskatoon. Jarvis’s comments should be compulsory reading for all farmers:

“Now when I think of a duel, I think of two people standing in a field trying to shoot each other. In this situation, the best that can happen is that one person winds up no better than he was before, and the other person ends up a lot worse. The analogy is probably appropriate for dual marketing.

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“The justification for dual marketing is that it would provide competition. I’ve always believed in competition myself. When I buy a car or a television set, I always go to several dealers to see which one is offering the best price.

“There’s no doubt that you can get a lower price if there are several sellers of a product instead of just one.

“But the proponents of dual marketing are missing a point. Farmers aren’t buying grain. They’re selling it.

“If an overseas customer had a choice of buying from several sellers of Canadian grain, he’d choose the one with the lowest price. Buyers already have enough choice among other exporting countries.”

Esmond Jarvis, a farm boy from Gladstone, devoted his career to improving the lives and incomes of farmers.

For this service he was inducted posthumously into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2006.

I very much doubt any of federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl’s gang of dual marketers will be inducted into a hall of fame for their services to western farmers.