CWB returns $4.95 billion

[parsley]

Oh charliep, I am too uncontrollable!

Some things don't add up, though, so I presumed there is some of Vader's abra ca dabra business going on.

For example, the CWB ran 5,906 tonnes barley throught the CWB's till, but then stashed the cash into the contingency fund, bypassing the pools.

Huh?

Did they make the pool disappear? Kabong?
Forgot about it?
Did they burn the pooling-pillar along with those crosses?
Funny business, this abra ca dabraying.

OK , you wanna talk net interest earnings:

30.6 in 2006/07
36.1 in 2005/06
53.4 in 2004/05
56.1 in 2003/04
54.8 in 2002/03

Shrinking at the same rate as support for the Board is shrinking, is that a fair observation?


Parsley

[wilagro]

Parsley: Perhaps you should take some time off to study bookeeping/accounting practices and perhaps some forensic accounting as well.

So many instances of bad practices quoted without a thorough knowledge of the subject...tsk tsk. Not good at all.

[chaffmeister]

Arason is actually pretty close:

Total revenue: $4.95 billion (roughly)

Total "earnings distributed to pool participants": $3.81 billion (roughly)

Transferred to Contingency Fund: $1.88 million (roughly)

Total "Sales returns paid to payment program" (PPO): $710 million (roughly)

Total "distribution": $4.95 billion.

If you add the distribution to pool participants and the PPO returns, you get 91% of all revenue. So that all adds up.

The rest is direct costs (marketing costs - freight, terminal elevation, etc) which is $600 million, plus admin, other stuff, contingency fund, etc.

The thing I don't like is that the CWB "revenue" figure used to be basis instore. Now its a tally of all sales - instore, FOB, CIF, C&F, delivered rail, etc, etc.

That's why you now see a huge figure for terminal charges, freight (which includes ocean freight for CIF and C&F sales). In other words, it's pretty tough to figure out how they really did marketing grain.

"Other Income" is "interesting" as well. Among other things, this year this includes "a prior claim settled in the CWB's favour" that hit the feed barley B Pool. Worked out to about $50/tonne.

Add that to the interest revenue in B Pool of about $55/tonne and there's $105/tonne of revenue that has NOTHING TO DO WITH MARKETING. This made the PRO higher than sales vales. And even with the artificial PRO, the CWB still couldn't market through the pool (couldn't attract deliveries) so they sold "out side the pool" about 6,000 tonnes.

Reminds me of a famous quote (with apologies to Horatio Nelson):

"Transparency? I see no transparency."

[parsley]

wilagro,

You are absolutely right.

You'd need a forensic accountant.

The problem I see, is the lack of consistency.

Every year, the CWB has to abra ca dabra because their marketing/spending/transferring pracices are aimed at enhancing....deceptively.

The CWB search to do something creative to MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK BETTER THAN THEY PERFORMED.

So they are tricky magicians.

Why should a farmer need to be a forensic, when the CWB of his money spends Millions "communicating"?

All they want is a bloody financial report that is revealing, easy and accessible.

Demmurrage was a typical example.


One thing I do know, wilagro:

Mamma's purse is light.

Been that way for 40 years.

Mamma wants a heavy purse.

Mamma got mad.

The B of D screamed, "Lighten up, mamma"

The CWB staff thought they meant take a little more cash, and they skimmed off another layer for stress bonuses.

Mamma's purse got really light.

Now, Mamma's not very good with numbers but she's done a lot of lugging and you can't trick her on the weight of her purse.

Ah....and therein lies the problem.

Never pee-off the mammas.

Parsley

[chaffmeister]

The CWB appears to like complexity - it makes deception that much easier.

How many people looked at the Annual Report and saw "total revenue much higher"? You can be sure that's what the media saw - and reported - because that's what the CWB wanted them to see - and say.

I spent a lot of time pouring through a number of documents:

CWB 2006/07 Annual Report - numbers and commentary
CWB 2005/06 Annual Report - numbers and commentary
CWB website - each and every PRO release for the 06/07 crop year, including the comments
Canadian Grain Commission weekly stats - each week for 2006/07
Canadian Grain Commission monthly export stats reports - each one for 2006/07 crop year
Montana cash grain stats
EU cash grain stats

Once you do that, you can see that the CWB:

(1) did not do as good a job at marketing barley as they would like you to think, and

(2) engaged in systematic deception to spin their story at the expense of a true representation.

[bduke]

Never pee off Mamma.....How true. Never underestimate Mamma's intuition, especially the super smart ones like Parsley, either. Reminds me of a "story".

Susie Lee done fall in love,
She planned to marry Joe.
She was so happy 'bout it all
She told her Pappy so.

Pappy told her "Susie Gal,
You'll have to find another,
I'd just as soon your Ma don't know,
But Joe is your half brother".

So Susie put aside her Joe
and planned to marry Will.
But after telling Pappy this,
He said "there's trouble still,

And please don't tell your Mother

But Will and Jo and several Mo'
I know is your half brother".

But Mamma knew and said"My child
Just do what makes you happy
Marry Will or marry Joe
You ain't no kin to Pappy"!

Bill