By IANS,
Ottawa : The Canadian government will gradually end the western Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on the selling of wheat and barley in the northern American country.
The plan, which will be phased in over five years, will allow western Canadian farmers to sell their wheat to the highest bidder, rather than to the government-controlled Canadian Wheat Board, the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world, reported Xinhua.
As one of Canada’s biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells grain to over 70 countries.
While Western Canadian farmers are able to choose what crop to plant, when to plant, when to harvest and bear all the risk of operating a farm, they are unable to choose how they sell their wheat and barley.
Farmers have been required to sell through the Canadian Wheat Board marketing monopoly since it was established Oct 12, 1943 when Canada was committed to providing inexpensive wheat to Britain as part of the war effort.
The board itself grew out of farmer cooperatives on the Canadian plains during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but in its early years it had to compete with private grain dealers.