Ending CWB Monopoly; Many Benefits

[jdepape]

Agstar:

"line companies will cherry pick"

Wow. First you say that farmers competing with each other will drive the price down and don't seem to listen when we say that the buyers will compete and hold the price up (they actually work together to find the price equilibrium point). And now you say that grain companies will pay more than the CWB (by a nickel) just to frustrate the CWB and get the business away from the CWB. But if they have a negotiated deal with the CWB to handle their business, why would they want to send them away?

"incentives to cash starved farmers"
You gotta ask yourself why they are cash starved in the first place.

Check this out:
[URL="http://cwbmonitor.blogspot.com/2010/10/is-this-deal-you-want.html"]Is this the deal you want[/URL]

In an open market, farmers will be able to sell ANYTHING to generate cash - even wheat. So if wheat prices are lousy, they sell canola. If they don't like canola prices, they sell wheat.

"How will the segregate CWB grain from their grain."

They don't now (feed wheat - CWB/non-CWB - all in one bin) why would they need to then?

The grain companies are very customer-oriented. Screw up once and you may never ship to them again. Tell me - why would they treat the CWB any different than any other customer?

[jdepape]

To clarify that last paragraph:
If a grain company screws up, they may lose a customer and not get to ship to them again. Why would they treat the CWB lousy and not get their future volumes?

[bucket]

Someone is missing the other part of the equation.

THE GRAIN COMPANIES MARKET A GOOD MAJORITY OF OUR GRAIN THROUGH THE "ACCREDITTED EXPORTER" PROGRAM.

The cwb does very little for us in the first place. And one retired director once told me the cwb relies on grain companies to make the logistics work.

We don't need 500 employees FTD in winnipeg.

[gregpet]

First board supporter I have heard saying the price will go up when the CWB does not have its monopoly powers any longer. Agstar, has the light bulb finally turned on and you realize the multis will have to compete and bid competitively for our grain?

[jdepape]

Here's a story about how the CWB relies on the trade.

Some markets are quite small. I know of one that buys barley but the receiving port is quite small - it can only accept and unload ships less than 30,000 tonnes.

Their imports tend to come in larger vessels delivered to a larger port in a neighbouring country. These vessels are "grocery" boats, loaded with a number of commodities - wheat, barley, canola, peas, by-products.

The CWB relies on the trade to execute this type of business (it's not that rare) because it doesn't do all the other commodities - needs someone who is set up to do it. Otherwise, the CWB would never sell into those markets.

Wonder how many other situations we miss out on because the CWB doesn't do that kind of business. Containers? Organics? Speciality IP grains?

[Braveheart]

Ending CWB Monopoly; Many Benefits. Could one be ending the wheat boards involvement in transportation? Right now the entire car supply is subject to a high level split of the cars with (and I can't remember the number) but around 60% of the cars going for wheat board grains. Will we transition to a commercial system where the marketplace decides what the car supply is used for and when? As a farmer I want movement from my partners in the value chain when it makes all of us the most money.