Western Canadian grain farmers saw their second-highest on record in 2008-09, boosted by high grain prices for a large, high-quality crop. The financial results are outlined in the CWB’s “Report to Producers”, which begins arriving in farmers’ mailboxes next week. The complete 2008-09 CWB annual report, titled Strength in Numbers, will be released following tabling of the results in Parliament this month.
Prairie farmers earned a near-record $7.1 billion from their wheat, durum and barley, second only to $7.2 billion the year before. While grain prices have since sharply declined, farmers’ per-bushel returns in the 2008-09 crop year (ending July 31, 2009) were the second-highest in history at $8.47 for wheat and $10.30 for durum, before freight and handling deductions. Total sales of malting barley hit a new record (2.8 million tonnes). Pooled returns for malting barley hit a new high at $6.84 a bushel, before 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 who chairs the CWB’s farmer-controlled board of directors. “The results also show the strength of farmers who sell their grain together to maximize our advantages in a global marketplace that has become extremely volatile and unpredictable.”
Total CWB exports in the 2008-09 crop year (ending July 31, 2009) were 18.4 million tonnes, the highest in nine years and a million tonnes above the previous year.
The CWB put in place a revised risk-management strategy in 2008-09, designed to avoid losses to its Producer Payment Options program from unprecedented market volatility. Combined with market changes that were favourable to the programs, the new approach allowed the CWB to erase a $28.9 million deficit in its contingency fund, caused by the extraordinary market conditions of 2007-08. 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 programs 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. “Farmers want these pricing options available and the CWB is committed to delivering them.”
Another highlight of the year was the expansion of CashPlus, the CWB’s cash contracting program for malting barley, which enabled buyers to secure supplies and farmers to receive excellent returns at a guaranteed cash price. Sufficient returns were achieved to provide an additional payment of $12.89 per tonne to participating farmers at the end of the year.
The “Report to Producers” is available online at www.cwb.ca/reporttoproducers. The annual report will be available online later this month. Printed copies can be ordered by e-mailing questions@cwb.ca or calling 1-800-275-4592.
