.Canadian Wheat Board Monopoly to end

The Canadian Agri-food sector takes another hit as our federal Conservative's government bill to scrap the Canadian Wheat Board's grain marketing monopoly cleared the final stage of approval by Canada's House of Commons November 28, 2011. The bill will end the Wheat Board's six-decade old marketing monopoly for Western Canada's wheat and barley for milling or export as of August 1, 2012, the start of the 2012/13 crop marketing year. The new law will alter the western grain industry as farmers would be able to immediately commit next year's crops to private grain handlers like Viterra, Richardson International Limited and Patterson Global Foods through forward price contracts.
The bill still needs approval from the Canadian Senate under Conservative control and is expected to become law before Christmas. The legislation faces a court challenge on December 6, 2011 by the Wheat Board, which argues that the bill is illegal because the government did not hold a farmer vote on ending the monopoly. The government plans to help the Wheat Board survive without its monopoly by guaranteeing its initial payments to farmers and borrowings for up to five years.
Previous polls have supported the board's monopoly which should always in theory create a higher market price for farmers based on the economics of supply / demand.