Marketing Canada's Most Important Crops
Canada has a small population compared to its neighbour, the USA. In almost every respect, including population, the USA outnumbers Canada by the order of ten to one.
When it comes to international trade, Canada has historically had to take measures to ensure that its exports could attract buyers from around the world, and not be forgotten in the midst of the much larger USAmerican presence. One way of meeting this challenge was the creation of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Both wheat and barley are brought to market and sold to other countries through this national agency and only through it. It is a monopoly.
Canada is the sixth-largest producer of wheat in the world, and it exports about 75% of the wheat that is grown in Canada. It is the most important cultivated crop. In an average year, 13,000,000 hectares of the country's arable land are planted to wheat.
Because most of Canada's wheat and barley are grown in the West, the CWB affects farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta most of all. The CWB's headquarters are in Winnipeg MB. When it was established in 1935, the CWB was a voluntary organization, but it became compulsory for all Canadian exporters of wheat and barley in 1943.
How the CWB Markets Wheat and Other Grains
The CWB pools the prices offered by foreign buyers of grain. As well, it regulates the delivery of grain by farmers, and it co-ordinates the delivery of the grain to foreign buyers.
Most of the grain is shipped by train in hopper cars owned by the CWB. Trains take the wheat to the ports of Churchill MB, Thunder Bay ON, Prince Rupert BC, and Vancouver BC, continuing from there by ocean-going ships. (Note: although Thunder Bay, a port on Lake Superior, lies almost in the centre of North America, ocean-going ships are able to reach it by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway, past the cities of Québec and Montréal, and into the Great Lakes.)
However, in 1998-1999, China in fact imported much more Canadian malting barley than Canadian wheat. In 1998-1999, China did not number among the top ten importers of Canadian wheat. In order, these were
This list varies from the list of top ten importers of Canadian wheat over the past decade, 1989-1999:
Over the past ten years, Canada has exported about 19% of the total of wheat traded around the world. This is second only to the USA (31%), and slightly more than the European Union (18%).
As of 1999, the CWB ceased being a Crown Corporation, but it remains publicly governed. Ten of the CWB's directors are elected by grain farmers, while the federal government appoints five other directors. This group of fifteen directors continues the CWB's traditional role of guaranteeing initial prices that are paid to farmers for their wheat and barley.