Having shared office space and administrative staff since 2013, the Alberta Wheat Commission and Alberta Barley Commission are moving ahead under shared management.
“This is a next logical step in our relationship,” explains Tom Steve, general manager of Alberta Wheat, and now, Alberta Barley.
The move to shared management, which was announced at FarmTech in Edmonton this week, follows a four-month trial period.
There are natural synergies that are not commodity specific when it comes to policy and communications, he notes. The next phase will have management formalize an operating model to serve both the wheat and barley boards.
With sister organizations in Manitoba working toward merging, the move to shared management could be seen as a step toward amalgamation between the Alberta wheat and barley organizations.
“Down the road the boards certainly are thinking about the idea of a future amalgamation but no decisions have been made, and it would require a regulatory change to do that,” says Steve.
Listen to Tom Steve’s conversation, discussing the future of Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley with Shaun Haney at FarmTech, here:
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