The Canadian government would consider giving the Canadian Wheat Board short-term capital to help it adjust to an open market once Ottawa removes its grain monopoly, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Wednesday. Ritz, speaking to reporters in Winnipeg, said funding would depend on the board presenting a suitable business plan. “We’ll have a look at […] Read more
Government may fund CWB’s move to open market
CWB to conduct farmer vote on monopoly
The Canadian Wheat Board will hold a farmers’ vote on the future of its marketing monopoly on Prairie wheat and barley, in a last-ditch bid to stop Ottawa from opening up the trade to competition. The CWB said Tuesday that the plebiscite on whether to retain the world’s last major agricultural monopoly, will take place […] Read more
Manitoba To Fight Changes To CWB
Reading Time: 2 minutes The province of Manitoba will lead an advertising campaign to stop the federal government from stripping the Canadian Wheat Board of its monopoly on the western Canadian grain trade, the provincial government said last Monday. Canada’s Conservative government plans to introduce legislation this autumn to end the board’s marketing monopoly on wheat, durum and barley […] Read more
Wetness to push Man. unseeded acres to record
Unseeded crop acres in Manitoba will likely reach a record high this year due to excessive wetness, a provincial government official told Reuters on Monday. The province is working to calculate an estimate, and it appears Manitoba will exceed the record of nearly 1.4 million unplanted acres set in 2005, said David Koroscil, manager of […] Read more
Wet conditions hit size of Prairie wheat crop: CWB
Canada’s Prairie crop belt will produce less wheat and more barley this year, with excessive moisture in Manitoba and Saskatchewan limiting the projected harvest, the Canadian Wheat Board said on Tuesday in its first forecast of the year for the region. Flooding will hit the world’s biggest spring wheat and durum exporter for the second […] Read more
Rains stall Saskatchewan seeding
Farmers in waterlogged parts of eastern Saskatchewan are nearly out of time for fields to dry in time for planting, after steady rains in the past few days, provincial government officials said Wednesday. “Every second day for the past week, it seems like it’s been raining and raining,” said Daphne Cruise, regional crops specialist with […] Read more
Wheat, barley single desks to end together: CWB
Ottawa plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on spring wheat, durum and barley crops simultaneously in August 2012, the board’s chairman said after meeting with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on Tuesday. Ritz made his first-ever visit as minister to the CWB’s Winnipeg head office for a brisk 30-minute meeting to directly inform […] Read more
Cargill Calls For Orderly End To Orderly Marketing
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Canadian government should give the grain industry at least six months to adjust before ending the Canadian Wheat Board’s grain monopoly, the chief executive of Cargill’s Canadian subsidiary said May 11. A good time for the change, which would allow Western Canada’s farmers to sell their wheat and barley to anyone they choose instead […] Read more
Tories aim to end CWB single desk in 2012
Canada’s Conservative government will likely introduce legislation this autumn that will end the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on wheat and barley in 2012, the returning federal agriculture minister said Wednesday. Western Canada’s grain industry has operated since the Second World War under a monopoly that forces farmers to sell wheat and barley to the […] Read more
Viterra not commenting on GrainCorp chatter
Viterra’s chief executive declined to comment on Wednesday on his company’s possible interest in acquiring GrainCorp, a leading Australian grain handler that market watchers see as a takeover target. However, CEO Mayo Schmidt, responding to a question at the BMO Capital Markets farm investor conference in New York, noted Australia’s grain industry is in consolidation […] Read more
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