Australian Ag Minister Tough on Wheat Laws
Despite grower concerns the country is moving forward with a break up of its single-desk trading system.
Compiled by staff
Published: Jun 18, 2008
Angry farmers marching on parliament house in Canberra, Australia weren't enough to change the mind of the country's agriculture minister Tony Burke, who is continuing to defend the new wheat export laws. The senate is poised to pass the controversial laws that will throw wheat exports open to competition by dismantling AWB's long-standing monopoly, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Earlier this week angry farmers marched on parliament house and dumped wheat on a busy Canberra road to protest the change. Burke stood firm: "All the evidence points to growers being the beneficiaries of the changes. The monopoly did let down wheat growers."
A major crop report issued this week predicted record wheat production as farmers gamble on high prices, despite some continued drought in the country. Burke notes that for this season farmers, for the first time, would be able to decide who exported their wheat.
AWB was implicated in a major grain trading scandal earlier in the decade that included payments to Saddam Hussein, the late leader of Iraq, in order to garner wheat trade.
Burke's defense of the change includes quotes from studies that also found AWB caused delays for growers and had not always gotten the best prices. And he pointed to a report issued this week that found AWB's hedging strategies between 2005 and 2007 were too risky, and that growers paid for it.
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Tagged: wheat, Drought
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