The news that Potash Corporation will be laying off almost twenty percent of its work force comes as no surprise to grain farmers. Like western Canadian grain farmers, Potash Corporation was part of a single desk marketing structure designed to stabilize prices and extract maximum value for the producers through orderly marketing and quality control and assurance.
Conservative politician looks forward – may not be exactly as illustrated
Last year much of that went out the window with the effective end of the potash single desk. Not long afterwards western grain farmers also lost their single desk Wheat Board. Now both potash and western grain will be sold by the private trade on a “volume before price strategy” to quote one analyst.
In the grain world, Australia was the first to dismantle its single desk wheat board. You can click here to see a report of the disaster unfolding down under.
It will be familiar to those hundreds of Canadians being laid off in the potash industry today and may well be the future of Canadian grain farmers as well.
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