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UFA 0191 Calving 2012 AFE Earlug.indd 1 File Name: UFA 0191 Calving Earlug AFE 2012
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Project: Calving Campaign Image Area or Trim: 3.08” x 1.83” Publication: Alberta Farmer Express
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CWB ready to compete and expecting to be profitable Experience } The single desk will soon be history but CEO Ian White says the CWB’s relationships with farmers and customers, plus government backing, will allow it to prosper
Second Albertan awarded Nuffield Scholarship POST-CWB } Ryan
Bonnett wants to show producers there is life after the monopoly by sheri monk af staff | airdrie
By Allan Dawson
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staff | winnipeg
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he Canadian Wheat Board will succeed in an open market, predicts president and CEO Ian White. “I’ve got no doubt we can run a viable business,” White said in a recent interview in his office. “We hope it will be profitable in its first year. That’s what we’re targeting.” The board always said the single desk was its main advantage, but White listed several other factors that he said would give it an edge, including its long relationship with Prairie farmers and international grain buyers, its pooling experience, and government-backed initial payments and borrowings With the board’s 69-year-old sales monopoly due to end Aug. 1, unless the courts overturn government legislation, how can it now claim it can benefit farmers in an open market? “There’s no question in my mind that there was value in the single desk when you had a statutory environment,” White said. “In a commercial environment that doesn’t mean that you can’t actually have an effective business that operates for farmers in a different way... I think that’s entirely possible as we’re attempting to show now.” Reaching grain-handling agreements with Western Canada’s country and port termi-
see CWB } page 6
STILL SHRINKING
Canadian Wheat Board president and CEO Ian White is confident the board can succeed in an open market because of its long relationship with farmers and grain customers. photo: allan dawson
f the three Nuffield Farming Scholarships awarded this year in Canada, two were earned by Albertans. Brenda Schoepp, (profiled in an earlier issue of AF) and Ryan Bonnett were both awarded the prestigious honour. Bonnett lives in Airdrie and works as a marketing adviser for Farmlink Marketing Solutions. He is originally from Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, where his father still operates a grain farm. “A friend of mine had done this about four or five years ago and he had a pretty good experience and I had applied last year on his recommendation. I was a finalist, but didn’t get the nod and then this year I applied again and they decided to choose me,” he said. Bonnett will be studying grain marketing and production risk management strategies in other grain-producing countries of the world. Though he submitted the application with his proposed topic of learning before the federal government decided to end the CWB monopoly, Bonnett’s
see award } page 6
Canada Beef president sees herd decline } PAGE 49
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