Challenging the Board

There are a lot of people who would like to make money trading paper wheat. Naturally the private trade does not like the Canadian Wheat Board because it returns more than 98% of its sales revenue back to the farmers who produce the grain. There have been 14 international trade challenges to the CWB over the years and a full investigation by Canada’s Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

Not many know how detailed those challenges have been with some costing upwards of $10 million and the findings covering more than 140,000 pages. Some of those investigations included full confidential audits of Canadian feedlots, all CWB sales, and examinations of private trade sales. The conclusions are all the same: the CWB is an efficient organization and a fair trader that gets premium prices for Canadian grain. Most commercial farmers give the Board credit for doing an excellent job while its competitors just wish they could take that money away from farmers. Ken Larsen For over 30 years Ken Larsen has produced grain and forage west of Red Deer, Alberta. A graduate of the University of Alberta he is the author of papers, journal articles and book chapters dealing with grain marketing and agricultural history in western Canada. Ken is a full time Alberta farmer and may be contacted via email at: Hillfarm@rttinc.com

News on the Net——Bio and Archives

News from around the world