Farmers fight, buyers love it
The snow's on the way, the Canada geese are migrating to their winter-long urban food banks, and Ontario Christmas tree growers are undercutting each other again. The season of giving must be near.
Every year, Christmas trees are "specialled" at a large
Ontario nursery chain for a dirt-cheap $11.98 - at least $5
less than urbanites spend after packing screaming kids into
minivans and trudging through soggy fields with a hack saw to
cut their own. And every year, growers complain about the
individuals who talk solidarity with fellow growers from one
side of their mouths, and from the other do side deals with
the chains, dumping surplus production at
below-cost-of-production prices, trucking included. Meanwhile,
the vast majority of growers want no part of the provincial
association. Goodness, they can't go teaching others to grow
Christmas trees - that would be more competition.
Grower pitted against grower, and the only clear winner is the retailer: It's happened for a while in the Ontario Christmas tree industry, and it's happening with frightening frequency in agriculture across the country. In Western Canada, you have the board-busters who go to prison to make a few extra cents a bushel for their wheat, lured by currently lucrative markets to the south, but forgetful of the Canadian Wheat Board's world market dominance their forefathers fought so hard to win.
Now in Ontario comes news of four dairy farmers who have gone to Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve in a bid to sell milk direct to dairy processor Ault Foods, for exporting purposes. The farmers insist they are not board busters - they just want a crack at the export market at export prices.
It all sounds so reasonable, but there is more here than meets the eye. Who will be the ultimate winner? The farmer who sells milk at $27 per hectolitre, barely covering his cash costs? Just like the Christmas tree retailer and his cheap trees, Ault will come out the clear winner.
The rules fought for by a previous generation, but forgotten by today's, will be bent. It will become impossible to trace the flow of milk through the system. And Canada's already-shaky supply management system, built on the principle that farmers should have a profitable return on their commodities, will teeter further towards the brink. Whether it's on the Prairies or in Ontario, there's no better ammunition for the market-hungry Americans than a few Canuck farmers taking pot shots at orderly marketing.
Talk about sending the wrong message. In Western Canada, wheat growers wave "Jailed for Growing Wheat" signs. Dairy producers put lawyers on retainers to fight for the right to undermine the single-desk selling that is the only reason they are in business today. And from Quebec comes news of a large poultry and pig integrator putting up a 500,000-hen egg operation in Vermont, a vulture circling below the border, waiting for the barriers to fall. Short memories; short-sighted.
Strength in numbers - it's a given in any industry. Just look at the merger-mania going on agri-business at the moment. But somehow, when farmers try the same trick, it's called "market-distorting", "monopolistic" or "unfair competition". Minister Villeneuve and this regulations-cutting government should take a hard look at this dairy plan before opening Pandora's Box.
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LETTERS
Seed seethings
I heard about a new, unexpected pest - seed corn salesmen.
Apparently, someone in marketing has decided to hold next
year's corn crop for ransom.
"All you gotta do is buy four bags of what you don't want and
I'll sell ya one bag of what you do want."
This rumour does not surprise me. I once heard some seed corn
marketing executives seriously considering putting a coupon in
the bottom of the bag. How many seed tags have these guys
picked out of the bottom of a plugged seed hopper?
Buy varieties that consistently (three years) perform well in
your area. Don't buy one bag of Bt corn unless you can buy the
same variety without the Bt gene. Then plant these two bags
side by side and compare.
I think Bt is a great idea but I'm ticked off at this rape and
pillage marketing campaign. Farmers should teach these
marketing guys a lesson. Pick one seed corn company and buy
all your seed.
I feel sorry for the frontline sales staff who will suffer
abuse over this one. Buy them lunch. It's not their fault.
Michael Hunter
Bruce AgVise
Ripley