I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer.
So reads the second option of the upcoming barley plebiscite. The CWB calls it intellectually dishonest. Any editorial in favour of the single desk suggests that it should be struck from the ballot because a dual market cannot exist. A dual market is simply a rhetorical device that is right-wing conspiracy code for the destruction of the CWB. Sounds pretty scary.
It made me wonder: What has happened when other government agencies have transitioned from single desk powers to independent competitors in an open market? Did they fold like a cheap lawn chair?
The single desk for pork marketing was removed in the mid 1990's, but Manitoba Pork Marketing still has a website, so I thought I would check it out. The history page is really interesting:
Changes to the Natural Products Marketing Act resulted in the end of the single-desk status, effective July 1, 1996. Today, Manitoba Pork Marketing is a member-owned co-operative, governed by an elected board of directors that are hog producers.Manitoba Pork Marketing continues to be the marketer of choice for the majority of Manitoba's independent hog producers.Manitoba Pork Marketing is the provinces premier marketing agency.
Working on behalf of approximately 900 producer members that produce 1.5 million hogs annually, we represent the single largest volume of hogs in the province.
"The marketer of choice." They are operating in a dual market and by their own admission, they are not only surviving, but thriving. It makes you wonder what the CWB is afraid of.
1 comment:
So, the CWB says a marketing choice option - where they have every opportunity to compete for business - is intellectually dishonest? My my. The Mensa crowd over there sure don't mind showing their arrogance do they? Or is it really just desparation being covered up with false bravado in the hope nobody notices they have no vision or concept of anything other than a 70 year old government propped up monopoly?
Without a cultural and 'intellectual' transformation, they have every reason to be afraid for their own future. If they persist in pining and whining over the loss of their "visionary former CEO", if they truly convince themsleves that without a monopoly they can't compete, the world is going to pass them by. The Task Force Report on Implementing Marketing Choice brought a fresh new perspective and a glimpse of one future possibility for a successful launch into the real world. The Task Force, with only 7 individuals demonstrated that they have more collective vision and intellectual capacity to propose alternatives than the 100's of management employees at the CWB. Perhaps the stress has paralyzed their creative thinking.
All I can suggest is they better get over it, and move ahead. And fast, before its too late.
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