Quote From Agriweek by Morris W. Dorosh
"TOO GOOD TO BE SHARED?
There is simply no figuring out the logic behind the decision, unofficially
announced by the directors of the Canadian Wheat Board, that release of the results of their benchmarking project must be kept under wraps for now. The project, for which the Board commissioned pro-Board University of
Saskatchewan economist Richard Gray, was supposed to show how effective a
job the Board is doing in grain marketing by comparing prices received by farmers on the prairies with those received by American wheat and barley
growers at comparable locations across the border in North Dakota.
The odd part is that if the results show that the Board is obtaining higher
prices than U.S. growers get, it would go a long way to defusing the
American trade complaint, which is that the Board sells wheat and barley in
the U.S. and elsewhere too cheaply. Part of what the Americans contend is
that since the Board does not have to compete in the buying of grain in an
open market, it can sell at any price and pay producers a price backed off
from there. If it could show persuasively that it is paying higher prices to farmers than the U.S. free-market system, you would think that there could not be more powerful ammunition against the American trade action.
An equally curious aspect is that the Board has until now casually
dismissed the U.S. trade complaint as groundless, bound to vindicate the
Board system again, for the ninth time in 12 years. Now suddenly it's
running scared."
How can this be? There should be a requirement that the results of all studies that WE farmers pay for get released to US!
"TOO GOOD TO BE SHARED?
There is simply no figuring out the logic behind the decision, unofficially
announced by the directors of the Canadian Wheat Board, that release of the results of their benchmarking project must be kept under wraps for now. The project, for which the Board commissioned pro-Board University of
Saskatchewan economist Richard Gray, was supposed to show how effective a
job the Board is doing in grain marketing by comparing prices received by farmers on the prairies with those received by American wheat and barley
growers at comparable locations across the border in North Dakota.
The odd part is that if the results show that the Board is obtaining higher
prices than U.S. growers get, it would go a long way to defusing the
American trade complaint, which is that the Board sells wheat and barley in
the U.S. and elsewhere too cheaply. Part of what the Americans contend is
that since the Board does not have to compete in the buying of grain in an
open market, it can sell at any price and pay producers a price backed off
from there. If it could show persuasively that it is paying higher prices to farmers than the U.S. free-market system, you would think that there could not be more powerful ammunition against the American trade action.
An equally curious aspect is that the Board has until now casually
dismissed the U.S. trade complaint as groundless, bound to vindicate the
Board system again, for the ninth time in 12 years. Now suddenly it's
running scared."
How can this be? There should be a requirement that the results of all studies that WE farmers pay for get released to US!
Comment