SYDNEY, July 30 (Reuters) - Australian wheat farmers called on the government on Wednesday to set up a safety net to protect them from financial risks associated with the abolition of a 70-year-old wheat export monopoly operated by AWB Ltd
The New South Wales Farmers Association, a major farm lobby, resolved at its annual conference to ask the federal government to legislate to ensure growers are deemed secured creditors when they sell to commercial traders, protecting growers from default.
"Our industry was deregulated without our approval," association executive councillor Jock Munro said in support of the resolution. "This new wheat system will be a disaster. There's no equity in this for growers," he told the meeting.
Effective July 1, the government stripped AWB of its export monopoly, opening the export trade to all-comers who pass a probity test. This followed revelations that AWB paid kickbacks to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to secure sales.
The association's resolution also called on the government to register grain merchants to ensure they had sufficient funds to support trading activities. It also wants a quality assurance scheme in any new wheat-marketing legislation.
The meeting narrowly defeated a motion calling on AWB to remain grower controlled. AWB is urging shareholders to scrap a dual-class share structure, which gives growers voting control.
(Reporting by Michael Byrnes, editing by Mark Bendeich)
http://news.alibaba.com/139289_Oceania/329575/
Australian_Wheat_Farmers_Demand_Govt.htm
0 comments:
Posting Komentar