February 14, 2006

Australian grain group: wheat export system must change

The system of exporting wheat will have to change in the wake of an inquiry into whether monopoly exporter AWB breached Australian law by paying massive kickbacks to the deposed Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, Murray Jones, the president of the Grains Council of Australia, a national grower lobby, said Tuesday.

Any return to the system operating before the inquiry "is impossible," following revelations from it, he told farmers at a meeting in Moree town.

The Grains Council has been meeting with state grower organizations and grower members to map out a plan to lead the industry into a new era, he said.

Whatever form any new system takes, however, "the system of marketing wheat, domestically and for export, is and always must be owned and controlled by the wheat producers of Australia," he said.

Wheat producers need assurance that their export markets will be expanded and that over the long term they will be paid through a timely and transparent process, he said.

The council represents 38,000 growers or more than 60 percent of the total and they believe that "grower ownership and control of exports is and will be the absolute bottom line of any future system," he said.