Western Producer Article (Dec. 25) - CWB Looks at New Ways to capture the best price.

[TOM4CWB]

Ration-Al;

Since you brought up the subjects of CWB Basis cost, and info transparency... I will start a new topic for each, starting with the Basis issue.

For the life of me the above entry sounds just like lectures the CWB's Tom Halpenny gave me in the past.... so be it!

[AdamSmith]

I see the socialist utopian theorists are still looking for that magic pixie dust that creates wealth and prosperity with a wave of a wand.

Wealth creation by committee, moved, seconded and adopted.

Be it resolved; that the CWB will posess the insight and instictive knowledge to identify, in advance, the highs and lows in the market.

I feel so much richer already.

[Everest]

The bottom line here seems to be that as far as the CWB is concerned, they are under considerable pressure to deliver better results than they have in the past. As a result they seem to be trying to devise ways to do it, albeit within the old monopolistic regime. As far as farmers are concerned, they need better results from the marketplace for their wheat and barley.

What I find as little amusing (except it isn’t because of the $$ lost) is that farmers by and large are asking for the same range of opportunities with the same flexibilities to market, hedge, and manage risk as an open market provides. And according to the Western Producer article, the CWB is responding by trying to simulate an open market.

So the question that arises is, why try and simulate that which we already have? Instead of tying ourselves up in knots trying to do the impossible, by trying to invent a monopoly that is the same as an open market, why don’t we just admit that the system we have is no longer the kind of system farmers want or need, and replace it with a system relevant to today’s situation? Nowhere am I hearing from farmers that the most important elements of a marketing system are the 3 pillars of the old system; price pooling, single desk selling, and government guarantees. What I am hearing is that farmers want pricing and hedging flexibility, competition for their product, prompt efficient service, and opportunities to move up the value chain.

The needs of farmers have changed over the last 60 years. That means that systems need to change to meet those changing needs. Maybe we’ve come some way to that realization when the CWB now openly muses about it. I for one hope that as they examine the range of options, that they can get passed the nostalgia and romance with the history of our business, and truly come up with a plan that meets today’s needs for today’s commercial farmers. Can the present board of directors rise to that kind of challenge, or will they cling to their authority while continuing to look for the magic pixie dust?