Should the CWB be accountable for sales?

[haveapulse]

In a competitive market a sale is made when the traders calculation determines that the product can be purchased in adequate quantity to execute the contract.

The CWB monopoly enables sales to be executed without any need to calculate restriction created by price expectations of suppliers(farmers).

Are you confident the CWB sales team are capable of independently determining the best sales price therefore sales should remain in secret following the tradition to date, or should the CWB we subject to an annual review of sales, and delivery positions.

[parsley]

Online CWB trading Board where buyers and farmers can openly buy and sell just as flowers do in Holland.

Current
Transparent
Binding
Efficient
Cheap

[Hopperbin]

Flowers sold in Holland isn't that an auction? A grain exchange could do it cheaper and also provide a service of protection from risk.

[SASKFARMER3]

Dam right they should be but you know we will get the same old song and dance have to protect our special buyers of the product. Funny their slogan should be Protect the buyer screw the seller or just Honor among thieves.

[bucket]

The people at the cwb should be able to go to work in a stress free environment, get regular pay increases, benefits etc, answer to absolutely no one. When the phone rings, if its a customer they should be able to say " on behalf of western canadian farmers we will deliver your free sample of what,oh, 50000 tonnes on may 15 2010."

If its a farmer calling they can say "your concert tickets are available feb- march" (aka Grainflo) or they can just be ignorant.

The board of directors, by their own actions, have basically told the employees that they are above everyone else in Canada.

Tongue firmly in cheek.

Absolutely they have to be accountable and if a farmer phones, answers should be forthcoming.

[Zaphod]

If we honestly think the CWB has an influence on prices, then yes, they should be accountable for the prices. But my view is that they don't extract any sort of premium (they're not a monopoly seller, just a monopoly buyer), so how can they possibly be accountable? They just take the same price as everyone else (or maybe even less at times) so there is no premium to measure.

Last year's durum market confirmed that the CWB really can't accomplish anything of value. Even with half of the world durum market and very tight supplies, they stopped making sales (and taking deliveries) and prices went down anyway. Withholding sales obviously did nothing to support prices and farmers got hung out to dry.

So the question is whether it's reasonable to expect any benefit from the CWB when they can't extract any premium and cost farmers extra through inefficiency and slow payment. Since they clearly don't have any market power, I'd say we can't expect them to be accountable for something they can't control.