Alberta Farmers offended by CWB...

[charliep]

Boone

You and I seem to be as close to compromise as anyone. Areas of agreement.

1) Need for a balance of market alternatives. Where we might disagree is whether this is by choice or regulation. Your point is that there are a number of crops and this is one route to accomplish this. Open to discussion.

2) Need for market planning and risk management. Being profitable is not an accident. A note that the CWB producer pricing opttions are moving this direction (still need for improvemement). Lee and I are working from the other side (open market) in terms of price risk management and simply getting farmers to market in pieces rather than thinking they can call the market/sell for the high.

3) A high priority on meeting customer needs. This will be Canada's number one priority and our ace in the hole.

4) Adding as much value as we can to the grain we produce domestically. This should be part of a rural devlepment. How many of you are seeing services in your community disappear as farms get larger.

My last posting to this one. I look forward to the discussions in other threads.

[charliep]

Forgot one other.

5) Finding business partners that can be trusted (within a business relationship) and setting up value chain relationships that work to meeting customer needs, are efficient/low cost and share the financial benefits (everyone who works in a value chain has to be rewarded).

[TOM4CWB]

Henbent;

Every time CWB management and staff refuse to answer legit questions... and fall back on "you just get offended at everything"… this is neither constructive, fair, or being accountable.

I know Chairman Ritter portrayed me as being a liar, when his own CEO sent me a letter (which I know he is aware of or at least should be aware of) saying the exact opposite to what Chairman Ritter said to the meeting at Sedgwick...;

That the CWB holds a futures position on PPO contracted grain until that grain is delivered by the farmer.

This is what Adrian Measner wrote me on February 24th, 2003;

"As you may be aware, the CWB hedges the producer pricing options by selling the futures when producers lock-in a FPC contract or when they lock-in the futures component of a Basis Price Contract (BPC). THE CWB UNWINDS THIS HEDGE BY BUYING BACK THE FUTURES AS THE CWB PUTS SALES ON THE BOOKS (ESSENTIALLY THE CWB IS BUYING THESE PRODUCERS OUT OF THE POOL ACCOUNT OR OUT OF ALL SALES). THEREFORE, MOST OF THE FUTURES BOUGHT BACK TO DATE WOULD HAVE BEEN PURCHASED AT VALUES HIGHER THEN THE CURRENT MARKET." (EMPHASIS ADDED)

Taking off a hedge BEFORE the specific PPO contracted grain is delivered... is not risk management, it is foolish speculation. The CWB expects me to pay them if the futures goes higher, If I need to buy out of this contract. SO EXACTLY WHY DOESN”T THE CWB HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO HOLD THE FUTURES POSITION UNTIL THEY TAKE DELIVERY OF THIS CONTRACTED GRAIN?

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF ME, SHOULD BE REQUIRED OF THE CWB, if this is to be a fair commercial contract that has legal legitimacy. AGAIN the CWB tells me to sue them, If I don’t think the contract is fair.

THIS CWB PPO management of futures is not commercial, not risk management, and not to the benefit of my farm or your farm.

THE CWB could have lost over $75/t on my hedged PPO contract specifically, and this is probably exactly what happened.

October 1st, 2002, the CPS Mar. 03 CPS futures was quoted by the CWB at about $273/t. I Hedged on July 24th 02 at about $216/t. On March 18th, Mar 03 was worth about $186/t.

If the CWB was stupid enough to take off my hedge at a bad time… so it costs us $57/t instead of making us $30/t… is this my fault?


Since the CWB fails to even care about or try to understand these basic issues…, what trust and confidence am I to rely on... that Ritter even knows what is going on, let alone managing to extract a premium for "designated area" farmers?

If the CWB can't even manage such a simple task as PPO risk management, what makes you think they are extracting a premium for your farm HENBENT?

[parsley]

I will agree that merely two elected to marketing choice was a disappointment. But I was not dissappointed with the number of ballots that voted against CWB adherents for the monopoly. And they continue to grow.

Ten years ago, there were a few whispers of dissension aginst Board policies. Then it grew to dissidents asking unforgiving bold questions at Board meetings, "Why has the Admin budget grown by 50% this year ?"

This grew into Border runners. And now, there is a flood of farmers who simply demand marketing choice.

We went from a few complainers to a majority. And it is unstoppable until the ISSUES are laid at rest.

Let's attempt a cerebral discussion, henbent. Just issues. One step at a time.

Please answer this question as yes or no:

Would you agree that the CWB's Licensing arm issues export/interprovincial licenses to applicants right across Canada?

Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Parsley;

The CWB is clearly out on a limb on these issues.

I got the Buy-back information interprovincially (to go to Ontario from Edmonton)this means that CWB staff clearly have been evasive about these issues... which proves this is a problem for the CWB... and I could clearly tell this in the tone of voice of the CWB salesperson.

TO take extra money in the buy-back calculation... for freight no less... tops it all!

There can be no question that this is a scam!