PDQinfo.ca

[bucket]

You still need to contact the actual grainco or buyer.

Most provide pricing up to the minute.

Viterra has a mobile site. PH sends texts twice a day.

Cargill occasionally. And the cwb is keeping people up to date.

Not sure what your site does.

If you added port pricing that might be helpful to seeing if farmers are getting such a good deal.

Get the graincos to put their port selling prices online.

[TBH]

Yes, port pricing might help indicate if farmers are being treated fairly, but would that ultimately affect your grain marketing decisions? Probably not.

[bucket]

Aafc has quit issuing price reports.

Vessel reports and what's moving off the ports and south would be a nice addition since you are supposedly getting graincos info.

They get ours for free not sure why farmers can't get a consolidated report from industry players as well.

[wakopa]

we have a coffee shop in our town where a certain group mostly wine and bitch about grain prices and how they getting screwed by everybody,i sat down couple times and on purpose told them what i got for my wheat,the leader and his group were very quiet,never asked one question on how to get higher prices,after i left there leader continued the whining,hmmmm sound familar,some poeple rather bitch then improve.

[bucket]

It's a colossal waste of taxpayers money.

How about getting the graincos to use the durum exchange. No that's bitching.

How about port prices and forward sales info from the graincos. No that's bitching.

All relevant info in the states and mandatory in their market.

But maybe I am bitching for something that should have been implemented Aug 1 2012.

[jdepape]

The objective of pdq is to enhance price transparency in grain markets. It is working on the premise that at a basic level, price is a public good. (The USDA has taken that approach for years.)

The site as launched today is just the beginning. In fairly short order, we will be adding many new features:

<b>Customizable</b>
Users will be able to set their own preferences so whenever they come to the site, information will be displayed the way they want it - and only the information they want.

<b>Intra-day prices</b>
Right now, the site shows the previous day's closing average cash prices by region until about 2pm CST. After about 2pm, prices will be the current day's prices. Even the futures prices we show are from the previous day. The next step is to show both cash and futures with just a ten-minute delay.

Right now, the "change" in price reflects the change in price since the day before. In the near future, users will be able to see the change as a weekly or monthly change - maybe even annual. Or set a date and it will show the change since that date.

<b>Basis</b>
1. Regional averages based on posted prices by licenced primary elevators. Spot and deferred.
2. Users will be able to set their own preferences to show wheat basis whichever way they want. First, since the basis we show is as most buyers post it, you can keep it that way. Second, you will be able to have the Mpls futures prices converted to Canadian Dollars (using current FX rates), then when the futures is deducted from the cash price, the resulting basis will be a "true Canadian dollar basis". Third, you will be able to have the cash prices calculated in US, then the resulting basis will be in USD.

AS time goes on, data will accumulate, allowing historical comparisons on everything collected, inter-active charting, and so forth.

<b>Terminal prices</b>
There is a desire by some to see what grain is being sold for at the port, some even suggesting that when a grainco sells a cargo of wheat, the selling price should be made public to the world. Things to keep in mind:
1. Not one other country provides this information. Exporters in the US must report sales - crop, tonnage, destination, timing (old crop or new crop) - BUT NOT PRICE.
2. When you report a sale price, you are also reporting the buyer's purchase price. Buyers have competitors - the last thing they want is for their competitors to know what they paid. Reporting actual sales prices would be very bad for business.
BUT - there is still a good case for improved transparency. pdq will report as much trade information as possible for markets such as track or fob Vancouver, track Thunder Bay, track Mpls, track Chicago and so forth. Even destination prices where possible.

These will be entered manually, not via an automatic data feed from buyers (as we have on country prices).

<b>Other crops</b>
Other crops will be added as time goes on.

<b>Competition</b>
Although there are various sources of public and private cash prices, pdq is distinctive in a number of ways:
1. The source for pdq prices are the graincos actual bids - sent electronically representing all operating locations of the major grain companies and more to come. The sources of most private price services are from a limited number of locations and sourced manually.
2. pdq provides all deferred pricing available.
3. pdq provides prices on various grades and protein spreads.
4. pdq prices will soon be 10 minute delayed, much more current than anything currently offered.
5. pdq will not provide market analysis or commentary so will not compete with those services that do. In fact, pdq prices will be available to those analytical services for their use, reducing their workload.

Some say that this kind of thing should have been left up to private interests. and it should have been done long ago. I don't disagree - but it wasn't happening. And although some did make a valiant effort, nothing goes as far or deep as pdq.

[tsteve]

This is just the first step in a project to improve market and price transparency. The major grain companies are sharing their spot and forward bids electronically with AWC on a daily basis which has never happened before in Canada. Are there other information gaps and do we want the information to be shared live instead of daily? Absolutely. Is this the final version of PDQ? No. This project is aimed at determining what the base level of information should be in a properly functioning grain market. Lots of great feedback here and I would encourage you to keep the comments coming at pdq@albertawheat.com

Tom Steve
Alberta Wheat Commission

[bucket]

Maybe some one could answer why AAFC port prices are no longer updated?

[bucket]

How about no log in since it was publicly funded?

Why do you need to know a farmers info?

As a taxpayer you have spent my money?

[jdepape]

You need to register so that you can set up your preferences so when you come back in the future, things are laid out just the way you want it and just the info you want. It's so you can customize it the way you want it.

Watch for that functionality to be added very soon.