Grain customers from around the world have outlined their grave concerns about developments surrounding the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and the pending termination of its president.

CWB president and CEO Adrian Measner and elected director Allen Oberg will addresses the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry tonight at 7 p.m. EST and will relay messages from buyers in China, Singapore, Mexico, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada. They are examples of many letters, messages and calls received by the CWB from its customers over the past weeks. Others have been sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and to Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl.

“With our concern over the position of Adrian and the Board in general, we feel that we would be ultimately forced to look elsewhere in the world in order to confidently ensure a continued supply of high-quality wheat,” wrote Brett Warburton, executive director of the United Kingdom’s Warburtons.v

From Mexico, Grupo Altex president Roberto Servitje wrote: “We would hate to see you adopting the U.S. model where we have to deal with the large trading houses that always try to take advantage of both farmers and clients like us and very seldom, if ever, deliver what they promise.”

In another of the letters, now posted on the CWB’s Web site at www.cwb.ca , China’s COFCO buying agency expresses “astonishment” at the pending termination of Measner.

“It is really hard to understand that he will be treated with such a sudden termination of his position in CWB at this moment,” wrote COFCO wheat manager Yang Hong. “We hope a consistent leadership at the CWB be retained for the sake of our mutual business interest.”

Canada Malting, the largest buyer of Canadian malting barley, wrote: “We find the timing and reasons for Mr. Measner’s potential dismissal to be very concerning…. With the current state of uncertainty at the CWB, we feel it’s important not only for the Canadian farmer, but for the industry as a whole, that the CWB maintains as much continuity as possible, especially at the senior executive level,” wrote president Jim Anderson.

In their remarks to the Senate this evening, which will be posted on the CWB Web site, Measner and Oberg will refer to customers’ concerns and the potential for lost exports as a result of the federal government’s approach to making changes at the CWB. Oberg will also ask the government to respect decisions made by the CWB board of directors and Prairie farmers.

“The federal government needs to understand that any President and CEO who is put in place to work with the CWB’s board is going to have to do everything in his or her power to uphold, protect, maintain and strengthen the marketing power of farmers,” he says. “Refusal to do so will place that person directly at odds with the eight elected directors who support the single desk and the majority of western Canadian farmers who have elected them.”

Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. One of Canada’s biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells grain to over 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less marketing costs, to Prairie farmers.