Good morning. I think that we are all aware of the opportunities that the use of ethanol will provide for Canadian farmers and for the industry.
The industry is proposing a partnership with the farmers, and I think that they will be very happy with it. On the other hand, in the North American market, the price of corn or grain used for making ethanol is much too low. There was a great deal of discussion about advantages, and it would certainly be a great advantage if we could find a new market for Canadian and North American grain. However, the price of grain is currently so low that the ethanol industry is very profitable. Currently, Canada's best average farm gate price is $125 per tonne. Normally, if the United States produced less grain, the prices would probably be somewhere around $185 or $190 per tonne.
Could the ethanol industry survive if the price of the raw material was less competitive, or should we choose to use biomass? We could use annual plants that could be produced at costs below $100 or $125 per tonne, and it would be no doubt be better for the environment.
Given the amount of arable land that Canada currently has, would we be better off if we produced less traditional crops? Things could evolve, and around the year 2015 or 2020, these crops could yield two or three tonnes per hectare rather than 1.25 tonne per acre.