Dual Marketing

[jensend]

so what will change when the cwb disappears? don't you think everyone from the railways on down will have to make some adjustments and everyone including farmers will be looking to make things work better for them? some of you guys think if i don't call the cwb vile hideous names i must be a supporter. you're dead wrong. but i've been around long enough and my father clued me in almost thirty years ago to the changes coming at me. some of those old guys saw the way things really work.

[Fransisco]

Nothing will change because 'my father' told me so isn't much of a reason.

[Zaphod]

What would change?

Buyers would have to compete to buy farmers grain. That would raise prices. The asinine comments about private traders driving down prices don't realize this whole benefit of competition. Yes, traders want to buy as low as possible, but competition counteracts that. Plus, private traders want to maximize prices on the sales side of the trade. To suggest they would drive prices down on sales is just illogical.

If the private trade was involved, much more of the crop would be sold each year and farmers wouldn't be forced to store their wheat and durum. Farmers would only store if they chose to.

If the private trade was involved, they would be out making more malt barley sales instead of being happy with volumes that are just a bit more than the year before, like the CWB is.

If private traders were involved, they would be trying to maximize value along the supply chain. That would mean increasing processing and adding value in Canada which would beenfit everyone. Just look at the canola crushers as a perfect example.

[jensend]

he didn't tell me nothing would change. in fact he outlined a lot of the changes that have happened over the last couple of decades. you guys question my objectivity but i must be more objective than those who believe he cwb is the devil incarnate on one side and the ones who believe western civilization will collapse without it. get a breath of fresh air and think without the emotion.

[Fransisco]

jensen, you're the only one talking about the devil and the end of civilization.

[chaffmeister]

jensend - if you are objective, please help me figure out those that, as you say, believe "western civilization will collapse" without the CWB.

Why do they argue so ardently in support of the CWB when they have no objective evidence (prices, exports, business growth in related industries) to back up the claims of better "everything" with the CWB - premium prices, better than US farm prices, lower cost handling, better movement, lower freight rates, better rail service, growth in value added sector, increased offshore market shares, etc. (REAL objective evidence tells a completely different story.)

BTW - I don't think the CWB is the devil incarnate. I just look at evidence and assess things on that basis - which apparently you do as well.

[jensend]

sorry for the hyperbole. if you don't get it i'll try to be more literal. those who back the cwb take it as a security blanket, a habit and some see it for what it should be. it makes sense to some that there is strength in size and numbers when you're dealing with someone whose capital is so huge compared to your own. i object to it on the basis of property rights in what should be a market economy. there was a reason for it and perhaps that time is past but i don't see the board as the biggest problem facing producers.