The Rural Voice, 1980-10, Page 17GUEST COLUMN
Quota values and
marketing boards
RUTH JACKSON
Consumers Assoc. of Canada, Kitchener
The Consumers' Association of Canada, as the voice of
organized consumers for more than 30 years, has sometimes
opposed the efforts of marketing boards which were organized to
deal with producer problems, and our opposition has often been
misunderstood.
CAC recognizes that producers have a legitimate right to
organize to protect and advance their interests. However, as
spokesman for the consumer interest, CAC must oppose actions
which deny consumers the benefits of a competitive market-
place. A competitive marketplace would not permit production
costs from partly filled hen houses and poultry production
facilities left idle for a good part of the year, to be passed on to
consumers.
Substantial artificial entry costs in the form of high quota
values also raise the price of the commodity to consumers
without conferring any advantage. Quota value, once in place,
tends to be regarded as the producer's retirement nest egg.
Marketing board remedies are directed at a total commodity
sector when only a small percentage of producers were receiving
less than their production costs, or when the problems causing
low incomes were different for different producers.
The proposed Eastern Canada Potato Marketing Agency would
for example, by controlling provincial production and prices,
attempt to solve the diverse problems afflicting the industry.
These problems for producers are manifested by large quantities
of low priced potatoes, but have been caused by greatly
increased acreage in P.E.I., better storage and marketing
facilities in Ontario and Quebec, and an insufficiently
competitive processing industry in New Brunswick. (These
conditions were in part nurtured by various government grant
programs.) The variations and complexities of the problems in
different provinces, the 3 different potato markets (table,
processing and seed), the different yields per acre of different,
varieties of potatoes and the differences in yield caused by
weather conditions, make the proposed plan an inadequate and
inappropriate way to improve the lot of potato growers.
Rather, any agency established should improve the gathering
and dissemination of information to assist producers in their
acreage planning and marketing decisions. It could also act as
the sole bargaining agent for maritime processors and could
improve the quality and attractiveness of maritime potatoes in
central Canadian markets. These functions would serve the
needs of both producers and consumers in a more reasonable
way.
Crop
KEN R.
CAMPBELL
FARMS LTD.
R.R. 1 Dublin 52/-0419
THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1990 PO. 15