Author:
Ken Larsen per Roger
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 12:23:14 05/10/03 Sat
Author Host/IP: edtntnt11-port-219.dial.telus.net/161.184.204.219
In reply to:
Roger Buxton
's message, "Re: buxton view of the wheat board" on 22:08:56 05/08/03 Thu
More reaction to both Kit and myself.
From: "Ken Larsen"
To: "Roger Buxton"
Subject: Re: Your Canadian Wheat Board Policy.
Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 10:47:14 -0600
"Capitalism, socialism, free-enterprise", what the hell does any of that mean on the ground? Seems to me you've both become bogged down in theory.
In reality the CWB is simply the single desk sales department for export /
human consumption wheat and barley. Farmers have chosen this instrument to
access the global grain market because they recognize that size matters and
in the global grain market size and service are everything. The CWB
organizes the sale and delivery of about 300,000 ID preserved rail cars to
deep water each year, not to mention the volume that goes to domestic
processors, and into the US and Mexican market.
A sales department cannot hold a price if there are even a few others
selling into the same market for less. Our CWB does the market
development, sales and organizes the logistics of delivery. The other
reality that the CWB deals with is the need for orderly marketing of our
grain. About 20% of the grain traded globally comes from CWB sales. Only
by having a single desk, can the CWB protect the global market from the
speculative swings that plague other commodities markets. Enron is the
latest demonstration that such speculation benefits neither producers or
consumers. However, there is nothing, including the CWB, stopping
individual farmers from selling their own grain internationally. Organic
farmers have been doing so successfully for years using the CWB's Producer
Direct Sales Program. If you have a premium niche to service, the CWB does
not stand in your way.
The short answer is that your focus is too small and too local. The CWB is
an excellent model of how primary producers can take part in the giant
global grain trade on a more or less fair basis. To characterize the CWB as
socialist is name calling with no substance. It is simply an organization
farmers use to service a market that itself is hardly free or open, and by
its nature can never be. The final reality is that every investigation of
the CWB has demonstrated that it delivers higher net returns to producers
than the alternatives.
PS: The analogy with the fisheries is not apt. First, the CWB gives no
direction as to resource allocation, beyond conveying to farmers the global
grain price, nor does it involve itself with other production decisions. It
is simply sales and the necessary logistics. In other words, it is
fundamentally a market instrument wielded by primary producers.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 