Barley Producers Choose Marketing Choice

March 28, 2007

OTTAWA – Ted Menzies, Member of Parliament for Macleod, is looking forward to a new era for barley producers as a result of the 2007 barley plebiscite.

Earlier today, the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today announced that Canada’s New Government has listened, and will deliver, to Western Canadian barley producers who voted in favour of marketing choice.

A clear majority of the farmers who cast votes in the barley plebiscite indicated they wanted to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on barley and have the freedom to market their own product.

“Farmers from across Western Canada have made their choice clear. They want to be able to market their barley as they see fit,” said Mr. Menzies. “The results of this plebiscite echo what I have heard from my constituents for a long time. Farmers want to choose how to market their grain and removing barley from the single-desk is a first step to realizing this.”

Nearly 30,000 producers participated in the plebiscite and a majority has provided the Government with a mandate to move ahead. Over 60 percent of producers want to decide how to market their own product.

Minister Strahl said he will be consulting with the directors of the Canadian Wheat Board about the changes which will upcoming to the Canadian Wheat Board as a result of the plebiscite. Minister Strahl also indicatd that it is the Government’s intention that marketing choice for Western Canadian barley growers – including an option to continue to sell to the Canadian Wheat Board – will be reality by August 1, 2007.

For the results and more information on marketing choice, please visit www.agr.gc.ca/cwb.

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For more information, media may contact:

Office of Ted Menzies, MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade and to the Minister of International Cooperation
Phone: (613) 995-8471