Canada: CWB to allow private barley contracts

Despite a court victory maintaining its monopoly, the Canadian Wheat Board has decided to allow private contracts for about 500,000 tonnes of barley to stand, Sun Media Corporation reported September 25.

The contracts were signed after former agriculture minister Chuck Strahl announced in June that the wheat board's monopoly on barley marketing would end.

The wheat board said now that it's allowing those contracts to stand because it's important to Canada's reputation as a reliable supplier.

Demand for all grains is so keen that the wheat board expects farmers will be sweeping their bins clean.

28 September, 2007