An Aussie Perspective to Post-Single-Desk Marketing

A special session at Crop Production Week in Saskatoon gave an Australian perspective to the end of single-desk marketing.

In the 90s, the Australian Wheat Board was privatized by that country's government, and is now a private firm owned by Agrium out of Calgary.

 

Geoff Honey of Grain Trade Australia didn't make any comparisons between the current removal of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly and the situation with the AWB, but he did explain how it got to that point. He said there was recognition that AWB and its monopoly position was going to come under pressure internally through National Competition Policy, adding the change, however, didn't come around through government policy, but rather as a result of the Cole Inquiry into kickbacks paid by AWB to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

 

Honey says since the AWB's monopoly ended, there are now 25 licensed exporters for wheat in Australia and up to three million tonnes of wheat going out in containers.

 

Glenda Lee Allan talked about Geoff Honey's presentation at Crop Production Week on Thursday's edition of "On the Farm" on Country Music Radio: