The Canadian Wheat Board’s farmer-controlled board of directors announced today it will not participate in a government task force that is developing plans to eliminate farmers’ single-desk marketing system. The task force announced by Minister Chuck Strahl last week has four weeks to flesh out the Conservative election promise to dismantle the single desk.

“The Government of Canada continues to put the cart before the horse by forging ahead without giving farmers a voice about whether this is the direction they want,” said CWB board chair Ken Ritter, an elected farmer director from Kindersley, Saskatchewan. “We cannot, in good conscience, participate in a process that ignores their rights and their will.”

However, the board did extend an offer to the task force to respond to technical questions that arise during its deliberations.

Ritter said the much-touted concept of a “dual market” that retains a “strong and viable” CWB is an illusion. He said the government needs to understand – as most farmers do – that the single desk is the CWB’s primary tool for adding value to farmers’ returns and to their power in the world marketplace and the domestic grain industry. Without the monopoly, there is little value in the ongoing existence of the CWB. “It is important that everyone on both sides of this issue be honest and forthcoming with farmers about what the future can possibly hold. Producers must not be misled.”

Ritter emphasized that farmers have been in direct control of the CWB for eight years and, in that time, have delivered a wide range of marketing choice options. The next steps in the CWB’s future have been outlined in a comprehensive vision paper entitled Harvesting Opportunity. It envisions the creation of an agribusiness powerhouse that is fully controlled by Prairie farmers, with commercial businesses, partnerships or joint ventures throughout the supply chain.

“This is the vision we intend to pursue, building on the single desk which is the foundation upon which we have built our marketing success,” Ritter said.

Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. As one of Canada’s biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells grain to more than 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less marketing costs, to Prairie farmers.