CWB needs to do better with durum

The price of Canadian durum looks particularly bad right now as compared to what American farmers are being paid. Elevators in Montana and North Dakota are posting cash bids as high as $10 a bushel for top grade durum. Here in Saskatchewan, the expected price for high protein No. 1 durum is only about $6.50 a bushel. Comparing the Canadian and American prices is not as straight forward as it seems. American durum growers are less reliant on overseas sales. Plus, the Canadian value is a pooled price for the crop year and not a spot price like farmers can get south of the border. Still, the difference right now is very large, making many wonder if the Canadian Wheat Board system has any advantages. The CWB offers a Fixed Price outside of the pool and on wheat the Fixed Price is higher than the Pool Return Outlook. On durum, since there is no futures market, the Fixed Price is even lower than the PRO.  To add insult to injury, in the northern U.S. a new crop price of over $9 a bushel is available for top quality durum. Here in Western Canada, there is no ability to lock in new crop durum values. The CWB needs to do better or its support base will continue to erode. I’m Kevin Hursh.