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| Area producers learn about changes in grain marketing |
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By Michael Oleksyn Producers from around the region had a chance to learn about changes in grain marketing on Monday, February 6 at the CJVR Performing Arts Theatre in the Kerry Vickar Centre in Melfort. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture presented speakers to address how marketing will change with the end of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) monopoly.
“The purpose of the day is for the Ministry of Agriculture was to provide information for producers to provide the tools and knowledge for the upcoming changes in grain marketing,” Lee Auten, director of regional services for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture explained.
This was the second last session of seven that spanned the province.
“In these sessions we brought together a number of really quality speakers from across Canada, and internationally with Geoff Honey from Australia to cover a whole range of topics from the upcoming legislation to transportation, exports and logistics. It is to help provide producers with the latest facts and pass on the expert knowledge to producers,” Auten explained.
With the end of the monopoly the Ministry of Agriculture wants to give producers the most up-to-date information.
“The facts are based on the information that we have as of today, things are going to change in the upcoming months and we realize that. We just wanted to be able to give people a flavour of what was to come. We know that down the road there is going to be changes and we are hoping that this will introduce people to the information and then they can start following up and look into the information themselves,” she said.
The day included question and answer sessions and presentations from various speakers, including Glenn Tole of the CWB, Gavin Conacher of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Elwin Hermanson of the Canadian Grain Commission, Barry Petras of Louis Dreyfus Canada, Mike Davey of FarmLink Solutions, John DePape of John DePape Inc. and Marcel Beaulieu, director of research and analysis for Quorum Corporation.
Guest speaker Geoff Honey, CEO of Grain Trade Australia discussed in his video presentation how marketing changed in Australia when they went through a similar changes.
“Our keynote speaker is Geoff Honey, who we have via video. He gives a perspective on the Australian experience. It is similar and he draws a lot of parallels, I think it is a really good tool to have people look at some of the similarities, so in Canada they can make adjustments and learn from the Australian experience,” Auten explained.
According to Auten producers should have enough time to adjust to the changes that are coming and be able to take the information from the day and build upon it.
“It will be up to everybody to source out the information that they need to make good business decisions for their farms. What we are providing here is a broad range of expertise, where people can then go and do research online or talk to their local grain company, the Canadian Wheat Board, or go back to the federal government, or Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada when information becomes available and make everybody aware,” Auten said.
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