U.S. wheat wants access to Canadian elevators

notafarmer

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Canada is considering changes to its wheat quality control system making it easier for American farmers to ship wheat north of the border after the Canadian Wheat Board loses its monopoly Aug. 1.

"We are working on an initiative that will see the grading systems more in parallel," Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told reporters Feb. 24 during a telephone news conference from Washington, D.C.

"Certainly we don't want to dilute our system but we do want to make it available for some of these new varieties to come up from the U.S. that are giving us millability out of utility wheats."

That's raising alarm bells for farmers and industry.

"Absolutely this is the beginning of the end of the Canadian brand," former CWB director Stewart Wells wrote in an email.

Wells, who farms at Swift Current, Sask., predicts the changes will destroy Canada's reputation for having the best milling wheat in the world. Canada will be just another residual wheat supplier and prices will reflect it, he warned.

Changing those regulations will take time, said Western Grain Elevator Association executive director Wade Sobkowich.

"But in the meantime we can't have unfettered delivery of (unregistered) U.S. varieties into Canada because under the current classification system it has the potential of seriously devaluing Canadian grain," he said.

Read more at http://www.grainews.ca/news/u-s-wheat-wants-access-to-canadian-elevators/1000961811/
 
 
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