CWB cancels malt barley pool

[agriman]

FROM WWW.AGRIWEEK.COM:

THE WHEAT BOARD in effect terminated the '08-09 malting barley pool yesterday. It said purchases for the balance of the crop year will be through the Cash Plus program, formerly a voluntary option created a year ago which provides full payment at or near time of delivery. No further selections for new export sales will be made through the pool. The Board said it is protecting high values in the pool against international market price declines. The 2-row pool currently has an average price of about $252/tonne before elevator and freight deductions. The Board said the change would give farmers more “accurate price signals” and that malting barley growers “have indicated that upfront price certainty is one of the most important factors for their farm-business management." Sufficient malting barley has been selected to meet ‘08-09 needs and additional selection opportunities are limited. Farmers who delivered malting barley to the pool will obviously get a higher price than those who still have ‘08-crop malting to sell. This is an unprecedented and unexpected decision for both growers and users.

[TOM4CWB]

Agriman,

This should make the livestock folks happy!

Seriously though...

"Getting that plane ready for Greenland"...

News Release:

'CWB to manage the seal and gull inventories and values in Greenland with 'single desk'!

After Canadian commercial grain growers got sick of being ripped off and eliminated by CWB pricing and marketing decisions...

A special one way charter was booked by growers for CWB President and top managers...
They were flown the Greenland today... to manage the Seal and Gull inventories of Greenland... for a special training session on implementation of 'single desk' theology.



Mass termination of Greenland producer's pool privileges are expected...

This is expected to be the first action item to reduce inventories and reduce risk for the 'single desk'!

THe majority selection of CWB 'single desk' directors that were on the charter...
thought practice was necessary...
to make sure that maximum effectiveness would be achieved...
for implementation...
upon grain growers in the 'designated area' if they can find a flight for their return!

Perhaps someone should warn the seals and gulls... to have a fund raising project.... and instead keep the charter from landing... and send them over to Russia.... where they actually belong!!!

[TOM4CWB]

Agriman,

Sorry... my press release needs a little cleaning up... but I was in a hurry to get down to the CWB booth and congratulate them!

I didn't want to make it too coherent... or the rest of the 'single desk' supporters might start chartering aircraft!

[stubblejumper]

Tom if you are on the plane you know it's going in the wrong direction

[cottonpicken]

From the movie Airplane.

"Shirley that cant be true"
"it is true,and dont call me shirley"


-something along those lines

[agriman]

Good ol' CWB has left malt growers out to dry so it can post heroic malt barkley pool returns. This is a bigger scam than Madoff, at least to prairie barley growers. There are now two classes of malting barley producers: those who sold into the pool before the out-of-the-blue announcement and those who did not, stupidly thinking that if there is anything dependable left in the world it is the CWB pooling system. No one expected the pool to disappear halfway through bthe crop year. By the way, did someone get a tip? Feed barley futures fell like a stone in the last few days for no apparent (?) reason.

[charliep]

Likely to stir some controversy but would suggest that this decision/program
is a good one.

The malt barley market/international prices have changed since last spring.
The CWB and malt barley exports could not make sales in the current market
at prices that would add value to the current pool so the decision would have
to be to bring the pool value down with sales into the pooling accounts or
withdraw from the world malt barley market. The ultimate implication of this
program is that sales can be made at market values reflected back to a farmer
(at least least 90 odd % of it) and an opportunity for higher price/competition
for supplies with the local feed market. competition for domestic feed
supplies will ultimately (assuming the program is successfull) will reduce July
31 carryovers. The CWB needs this program to achieve their export target of
1.6 MMT (1.4 MMT malt) given barley exports currently at a shade under
600,000 tonnes (week 26 CGC stats).

On the drop in western barley futures, I might be patient before I interpreted
as 100 % to do with this change. Patience is warranted in the domestic
market and home work around the malt barley barley opportunities (assuming
selectable).

I would advise anyone with potential malt barley to talk to their local elevator
about about the cash plus payment/programs. If can get selected/pays over
the local price and has a reasonable delivery period commitment - sign up.

Have I gone weak in the head - maybe. This has to be business decision that
puts more money in your pocket relative to the other alternatives for your
barley.

It also may be a signal as to how the CWB will handle cash pricing (or a least
more innovative CWB payment option valuation in the future. Now if they
only had these programs for durum.

[kamichel]

Can someone check if this is even legal.
As far as fareness is concerned this is totally unfare to change in the middle of the year. So if the pooled price was low and current sales were higher then they would try to bring up the pooled price. Selling a little bit more malt and bringing the pooled price down a little is the right thing to do.

[kamichel]

Charlie program is good to have 2 pooling times or cash pricing and closing the pool. Closing the pool should have been decided earlier before any malt contracts are made.
The CWB is so scared to let the pooled price drop so farmers and supporters can assure everyone else that the pooled price tends to rise later in the year which is false. It drops half the time, rises half the time last time I checked.
What about CSWSW Pooled price dropping, most farmers could have sold for better prices than the pooled price now that it has dropped off the edge of the earth. They don't seem to care much about the minor classes of wheat dropping, yet they are so worried about malt barley.

[charliep]

kamichel

Can't disagree with anything you said on the policy side. As a business person, I would still
like the opportunity to sell for at least a 50 cent/bu cashplus premium to domestic feed
barley with an opportunity for top up (a guess by the way) versus no opportunity/missed
malt barley sales. As highlighted, the CWB is still 900,000 short of their barley export
target half way into the crop year.

I am really looking forward to the 2007/08 annual report and the performance measures in
it. I would like to see the performance measures expanded to include volume/market
targets versus strictly pricing ones (which by the way are still not externally verified).

[kamichel]

You have a point and I have said before that under our current system of holding up the pro we were losing too many sales. On the positive we do have some actions going on.

[furrowtickler]

What happened to all the producers that had malt on hold? This is not realy a surprise, the industry (line companies) have said for well over a month that the malt program was pretty well full and the borg was out of the market for a while. Our barley was on hold, so I am glad we did the P&H deal. Not much different the the fert price crah - do a little of your own homework and ask the right questions to the right people. The thing that is disturbing is that just about all if not all the malt was selected before the barley harvest was even 2/3 done. In an all for one system, this sucks for those who have high quality malt that was harvested later were screwed right from the start.

[TOM4CWB]

furrowtickler;

At the risk of giving pearls to the...

Forced CWB Confiscation of our grain... to have CWB globally capture ill-gotten gain...

Sadly the CWB Fails to explain... the fact that the thefts of our grain, remain.

That my farm cannot obstain... leads me to complain... that the purpose for the CWB pools are all in vain; causing me to write this refrain...

Who do we blame?

I think we are going insane!

[jensend]

well you're right about one thing.

[charliep]

A thought about consistency in application of the cash plus
program.

New export business will provide a farmer price of about $4/bu
based on a customer CIF price of USD $240/tonne. This is based
on USD $25/tonne ocean freight, an 80 cent loonie, $20/tonne
port costs and $60/tonne to move to port (rail, elevation).

Would the CWB still offer/promote the cash plus program if
international malt barley prices were USD $340/tonne and the
contribution the cash plus total returns returns were closer to
$6.75/bu or would they simply use the sales to push the PRO
higher for people that have already delivered the CWB.

Maybe I am missing something but the cash plus has to be a
legitimate 365 day a year program to be effective. Why haven't
farmers heard about this program to date as a business alternative
and out of the light of press releases? Should the CWB operations
side be able to cherry pick sales on the cash plus program to make
the malt barley pool look better?