Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Wheat Board is structured so that it takes all of the product from all of our industry here in Canada.
We should look closely at the size of that industry and where these products are sold. The industry sells some 30 million tonnes of wheat around the world to markets in Japan, Asia and throughout the United States.
Sales to the United States are in the area of about $2 million. What I am hearing from some spot pricing at very specific times is in fact that little market in the United States, which represents only 7 per cent of the sales of Canadian grain into the United States, may blip up from time to time.
When the price in the United States goes up the Canadian Wheat Board gets that price. There is absolutely no question that the board picks up that spot price in the United States. It also picks up all the prices throughout the rest of the world. Not only will that two million tonnes be sold in the United States for a higher price when the spot price is high, but also the other 28 million tonnes that is sold in other regions of the world. As a result every farmer that sells wheat to the wheat pool gets the benefit of that high price and the average of all the other prices put together. That is how a pool works.
When we are talking about how that pooling system operates, we are talking about selling in. Each person does not get one price from the United States, a different price from Japan, but an average or pooling price. As a result, they get the best price because the wheat board keeps no profit. All of the profits go back to the growers, the producers. Some grain is sold at higher prices and other grains are sold at lower prices. The average is what the Canadian Wheat Board pays.
When we talk about the delivery system and because we have a huge inventory of product, we have large growers co-operating with the wheat board, we know very clearly that their reputation throughout the world has been fabulous. It has the best reputation of any grain selling operation anywhere in the world.
As a result the board has a reputation for being able to supply. There may be niche markets where at one point it could not supply product, but in general it is recognized around the world that the wheat board has enough product to supply the markets to which it is selling. It has done a very good job and has a super reputation with the product it is selling. The Canadian product is above all others.
When we look at that operation it is very clear that producers do get the best average price and they do sell at a pretty secure market throughout the world.