Winnipeg, MB, July 29, 2011—“The Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) today reminded prairie barley producers that July 31st is Barley Prosperity Day. Why? Because it is exactly four years ago on July 31st, 2007, that the Federal Court of Canada ruled in favour of the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board’s legal challenge of the Harper Government’s ham-fisted and ill-conceived attempt to remove barley from the CWB’s marketing authority via Order-in-Council or Cabinet edict. Madam Justice Hansenruled that the Harper Government must abide by the Canadian Wheat Board Act and therefore could only amend the Act in Parliament after it had consulted with the CWB’s board of directors and with barley growers through a producer plebiscite.
Dr. Andrew Schmitz, an internationally recognized agricultural economist and graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, recently published a study based on actual CWB sales data for the crop years 2004-05 to 2008-09 inclusive. Schmitz determined that the CWB, due to its ability to price discriminate as a single-desk seller, was on average able to return an additional $107 million each year to prairie farmers compared to a multi-seller environment if it had existed. His research showed that the CWB achieved significant price premiums for Canadian malting barley in each and every year he studied. The price premiums for two-row malting barley, the major product being exported to the US, Japan and China, ranged from a low of $7.18 per tonne to a high of $91.80 per tonne. Price premiums for six-row malting barley averaged $38.91 per tonne over the same period.
On the basis of the Schmitz analysis, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the Friends’ 2007 successful legal challenge has injected an additional $428 million into the economy of Western Canada and the pockets of prairie barley growers.
“From my experience as a malt barley producer,” said Larry Bohdanovich of Grandview, Manitoba, “freedom and money seem to go together. The people with the most money in their jeans always seem to have the most freedom--the freedom to travel, the freedom to give their kids music lessons, the freedom to have an up-to-date line of machinery, a nice car—and so on. If the CWB gives me more return on my year’s work, that’s how I want to market my grain. I’m in the business to make money.”
Bohdanovich goes on to say, “and if some day I change my mind on grain marketing, I want the freedom to vote on any proposed changes.”
Contacts:
Larry Bohdanovich, Ph: (204) 546-3154 / 638-1893
Luc Labossiere, Ph: (204) 744-2208 / 825-7249 (English or French)
Laurence Nicholson: (403) 527-6804 / 952-5695