5. Are You Being Served?
http://www.uswheat.org/justReleased/doc/62ED310CA5D3F5EA8525735C0072C032?OpenDocument#
"What if you couldn't turn to the open market of the U.S. in this short world wheat supply situation? You'd be "over a barrel," as they say. Judging from an article on world wheat prices in the Sept. 13 edition of the Calgary Herald, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) apparently thinks that would be a good idea:
Tight world inventories favour Canadian grain producers who are dominant sellers of durum wheat and barley, said Maureen Fitzhenry, spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board…As Western Canada's sole wheat marketer, the Canadian Wheat Board is in a position to maximize the situation for producers, she said. "When you only have one seller, you can really get your buyers over a barrel, not to be too rude about it," Fitzhenry said.
Higher grain prices do benefit farmers, though not as much as one might think; wheat production costs in the U.S., for example, have trebled in just the past two years. Farm-gate prices in the U.S. are determined in an open market as are the prices paid by domestic and international wheat buyers. That’s why USW works with millers around the world to help them buy efficiently and to help them find the right U.S. wheat to meet the specific needs of their end use customers. We believe U.S. wheat growers are most successful when their customers are most successful."
So on balance, what do many CDN "designated area" wheat growers experience from the "SPECIAL" CWB service?
I believe Con Johnson said it in a special way in a letter to CWB Chairman Ritter; that bares repeating!
"Mr. Ritter,
I recently opened the CWB calendar and read your letter “A message to the grain farmers of Western Canada”. It was so full of inaccuracies and arrogance that I felt compelled to respond. You state that you want farmers, not politicians or bureaucrats to control the CWB. Farmers tried to express their wishes when 62 % of us voted for choice in the way we wanted to market barley. You totally ignored those wishes of farmers and let a judge who wouldn’t know barley from wheat decide for us. You and the Friends of the CWB created uncertainty in the barley market. Then you state your motivation was to do what was in the best interests of farmers. How do you know what is in my best interest Mr. Ritter? You don’t know anything about my farm or my circumstances. The arrogance of that statement is what will be the undoing of the CWB. You seem to forget that over 75% of the production comes from less than 20% of the producers. Most of that 20% despise the monopoly and everything it stands for. You will never change that.
When your daily price contract program attracted 650,000 tonnes of wheat in an hour and a half you should have gotten some insight into what farmers are looking for. Now with prices hitting record highs, we sit here and watch the rest of the world’s farmers being able to access them and all we can do is sit and listen to you tell us you are doing what is best for us. I’m afraid too many people at the CWB are mistaking arrogance for intelligence and you’re forgetting we, the farmers, know what is best for our individual farms. People that are cowards of change and especially cowards of marketing change should at least have the decency to let people who aren’t afraid of change to move ahead. The monopoly doesn’t exist because it gains farmers higher prices. It doesn’t exist because the farmers that grow the majority of the wheat and barley want it. It doesn’t exist because it does anything beneficial for farmers in western Canada. It exists only because federal judges say it does. Mr. Ritter, you don’t know what is in the best interest of my farm. I do and will continue to fight until I have the right to sell the fruits of my labors, just as every Canadian should.
<>
I hope you and the other pro-monopoly directors will remember that the majority of grain delivered to the CWB is only delivered because it is forced there by judges, not attracted there by the good job you claim you are doing.
Con Johnson"
What is the TRUTH?
The CWB SPIN as reported in the Calgary Herald?
Or the experience of thousands of wheat growers that are frustrated by "Pooling" and the pathetic marketing options that clearly are not transparent or representitive of world prices... because of CWB reliance on pooled sales.
Every single kernel of wheat and barley must go through the CWB pool... including PPO sold grain...except when the CWB direct buys barley from the trade instead of 'Designated Area" growers because the CWB are short feed barley?
"you can really get your buyers over a barrel"
The only true buyers the CWB has "over a barrel" are "designated area" growers who must sell using CWB "services"
End User Consumers can buy;
a) anywhere,
b) anytime,
c) from any other wheat supplier in the world...
and push CWB prices paid "designated area" growers down.
http://www.uswheat.org/justReleased/doc/62ED310CA5D3F5EA8525735C0072C032?OpenDocument#
"What if you couldn't turn to the open market of the U.S. in this short world wheat supply situation? You'd be "over a barrel," as they say. Judging from an article on world wheat prices in the Sept. 13 edition of the Calgary Herald, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) apparently thinks that would be a good idea:
Tight world inventories favour Canadian grain producers who are dominant sellers of durum wheat and barley, said Maureen Fitzhenry, spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board…As Western Canada's sole wheat marketer, the Canadian Wheat Board is in a position to maximize the situation for producers, she said. "When you only have one seller, you can really get your buyers over a barrel, not to be too rude about it," Fitzhenry said.
Higher grain prices do benefit farmers, though not as much as one might think; wheat production costs in the U.S., for example, have trebled in just the past two years. Farm-gate prices in the U.S. are determined in an open market as are the prices paid by domestic and international wheat buyers. That’s why USW works with millers around the world to help them buy efficiently and to help them find the right U.S. wheat to meet the specific needs of their end use customers. We believe U.S. wheat growers are most successful when their customers are most successful."
So on balance, what do many CDN "designated area" wheat growers experience from the "SPECIAL" CWB service?
I believe Con Johnson said it in a special way in a letter to CWB Chairman Ritter; that bares repeating!
"Mr. Ritter,
I recently opened the CWB calendar and read your letter “A message to the grain farmers of Western Canada”. It was so full of inaccuracies and arrogance that I felt compelled to respond. You state that you want farmers, not politicians or bureaucrats to control the CWB. Farmers tried to express their wishes when 62 % of us voted for choice in the way we wanted to market barley. You totally ignored those wishes of farmers and let a judge who wouldn’t know barley from wheat decide for us. You and the Friends of the CWB created uncertainty in the barley market. Then you state your motivation was to do what was in the best interests of farmers. How do you know what is in my best interest Mr. Ritter? You don’t know anything about my farm or my circumstances. The arrogance of that statement is what will be the undoing of the CWB. You seem to forget that over 75% of the production comes from less than 20% of the producers. Most of that 20% despise the monopoly and everything it stands for. You will never change that.
When your daily price contract program attracted 650,000 tonnes of wheat in an hour and a half you should have gotten some insight into what farmers are looking for. Now with prices hitting record highs, we sit here and watch the rest of the world’s farmers being able to access them and all we can do is sit and listen to you tell us you are doing what is best for us. I’m afraid too many people at the CWB are mistaking arrogance for intelligence and you’re forgetting we, the farmers, know what is best for our individual farms. People that are cowards of change and especially cowards of marketing change should at least have the decency to let people who aren’t afraid of change to move ahead. The monopoly doesn’t exist because it gains farmers higher prices. It doesn’t exist because the farmers that grow the majority of the wheat and barley want it. It doesn’t exist because it does anything beneficial for farmers in western Canada. It exists only because federal judges say it does. Mr. Ritter, you don’t know what is in the best interest of my farm. I do and will continue to fight until I have the right to sell the fruits of my labors, just as every Canadian should.
<>
I hope you and the other pro-monopoly directors will remember that the majority of grain delivered to the CWB is only delivered because it is forced there by judges, not attracted there by the good job you claim you are doing.
Con Johnson"
What is the TRUTH?
The CWB SPIN as reported in the Calgary Herald?
Or the experience of thousands of wheat growers that are frustrated by "Pooling" and the pathetic marketing options that clearly are not transparent or representitive of world prices... because of CWB reliance on pooled sales.
Every single kernel of wheat and barley must go through the CWB pool... including PPO sold grain...except when the CWB direct buys barley from the trade instead of 'Designated Area" growers because the CWB are short feed barley?
"you can really get your buyers over a barrel"
The only true buyers the CWB has "over a barrel" are "designated area" growers who must sell using CWB "services"
End User Consumers can buy;
a) anywhere,
b) anytime,
c) from any other wheat supplier in the world...
and push CWB prices paid "designated area" growers down.
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