CWB Asks -- Where's The Beef?

WINNIPEG - Mar 8/07 - SNS -- The Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB) board of directors want the federal government to reveal the plan behind rhetorical statements by its agriculture minister that the CWB would prosper under dual marketing.

CWB chairman Ken Ritter was responding to a March 7th statement from the Minister where the Minister defended his government's policy of dismantling single desk selling, stating that "there can be a strong CWB within a marketing choice system."

Ritter says, "We'd really like to see a concrete and detailed plan from the government. Independent analysis shows that the single desk provides farmers with a materially higher net benefit. In examining the repercussions of the potential loss of the single desk on barley, the board has concluded that in an open market, farmers would not receive a materially higher net benefit from the sale of their barley."

Ritter also restated the board's position on the options presented to farmers in the barley plebiscite. The board believes a clear question which provides only the two realistic options of a single desk or an open market system would give the government meaningful results.