Thoughts?

[vagabonddreamer]

malleefarmer...you must be mistaken...it is impossible for large multi-national corportations to control vertical sector economics...SURELY some other large multi-national company will suddenly materialize and provide INSTANT competition...pushing the price of grain THROUGH the roof and taking cattle and hogs along with it...

this vertical sector economic control is NOT happening here in North America (Canada to a larger extent) in the cattle sector either....ergo...you never hear complaints from the cattle guys on the beef community about depressed prices and lack of producer control...vs

[Choice2U]

vaggabonddreamer get your head out of the philosophy and into reality. The terminal concentration happened under a single desk. Now that it has opened up, competition is limited only until multi-nationals get other facilities built. Viterra saw an opportunity to buy a market share (ABB owns most of the port facilities) that wouldn't be challenged for a few years so they could hit the ground running and stay ahead of those that have to build.

[vagabonddreamer]

actually Choice2U...i think the existence of either single or multi or NO desk has little to do with competition in a vertical sector...there are NO marketing boards in the cattle sector..and for all intents and purposes...one company controls the entire canadian herd...we the ranchers are merely keepers of THEIR animals on our land and at our expense...ergo...the multi-nationals make the CWB and any other single desk marketing board in the WORLD look like chump change...vs

[Fransisco]

Wouldn't have anything to do with M COOL now would it?

[vagabonddreamer]

i thought about that fransisco...but American producers are only SLIGHTLY better off than we are...Mcool has not helped their cause much to this point..

i guess my point was that we get so focused on the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of marketing boards (in general)...that we lose sight of the fact that from a heirarchal perspective...they are a drop in the bucket...carghill could buy and sell every marketing board in the world a hundred times over...

these vertical market issues would have occured with or without MB's...the multinationals pay no attention to them...they simply work in and around them...a minor annoyance in doing business....vs

[Fransisco]

Your complaint was being held captive by a single packer. We have similar issues with hogs right now as well. And it is because of COOL. An open border is what kept the packers up here honest. Without that we are at the mercy of a few players.

Don't know what it looks like for cattle but with hogs we have had a pretty healthy herd reduction already here in Canada while the US guys are just starting to cut back a little bit. The price sucks for everyone but the US guys still have lots of options (competition) as to who they can deliver to.

Without a marketing board to get in their way the Aussies are going to do much better. There is competition where there was none before. But there is more than one way (marketing boards) that governments can stifle competition, COOL is definitely another one.

And it's not the multi-nationals who are behind COOL.