March 5, 2010
Canadian Wheat Board reports near record returns in 2008-09
High grain prices for a large, good quality crop helped Western Canadian grain farmers see their second-highest returns on record in the 2008-09 crop year, according to financial results released Thursday (Mar 4) by the Canadian Wheat Board.
The complete 2008-09 CWB annual report will be released following the presentation of the results in Parliament later this month.
Western Canadian farmers earned a near-record CAD7.1 billion (US$6.9 billion) from their wheat, durum and barley, second only to CAD7.2 billion (US$7 billion) the previous year, said a CWB release. While grain prices have since sharply declined, farmers' per-bushel returns in the 2008-09 crop year were the second-highest in history, at CAD8.47 (US$8.20) for wheat and CAD10.30 (US$10) for durum, before freight and handling deductions.
"The strength of these numbers is a credit to the success of Prairie farmers as growers," said Larry Hill, a farmer from Swift Current and chair of the CWB's farmer-controlled board of directors in the release. "The results also show the strength of farmers who sell their grain together to maximise our advantages in a global marketplace that has become extremely volatile and unpredictable," he added.
Total CWB exports in the 2008-09 crop year were 18.4 million tonnes, the highest in nine years and a million tonnes above the previous year, according to the release.
The CWB put in place a revised risk-management strategy during the year which, combined with other market changes, allowed the CWB to erase a CAD28.9 million (US$28 million) deficit in its contingency fund that was caused by the extraordinary market conditions of 2007-08, said the release. The CWB pool accounts were also repaid money that had been transferred to the contingency fund in 2007-08.
"We are comfortable that our new risk-management approach will ensure farmers' optional pricing programme can be kept viable and sustainable for the long term, even in an environment of high market volatility," said CWB president and CEO Ian White in the release. "Farmers want these pricing options available and the CWB is committed to delivering them," he added.
