To the Editor:
Over the past few months most grain prices farmers receive for their products have fallen by more than 50 per cent. In some cases farmers cannot even deliver their product because there is "so much grain around" that buyers do not even post a bid price!
Yet there seems to be no decrease in food prices for consumers. How can that be when almost 100 per cent of Canada's wheat needs are grown right here in the west?
We still have grain buyers crowing about supply and demand and claiming that the big grain crop has reduced grain prices farmers receive. So if there is an excess of grain why aren't food prices dropping? Could it be food prices are now following the principles that dictate gas pricing??
For farmers the answer is quite simple. Without orderly marketing farmers simply bid each other down in price in order to make a sale. "Price discovery" really means finding out who will sell their grain for the lowest price. Many sellers and few buyers allow this to happen, especially in times of "surplus" supply!
The four or five large grain companies simply put out a price which farmers can take or leave. Since there is no price transparency farm-gate grain prices have little relevance to what the grain company will sell grain to processors for.
Consumers need to demand lower prices for food now and question the system that is ripping them off along with the farmers who grow their food!
Kyle Korneychuk, Pelly, SK.
