New bean growers organization swings into action July 1

Thursday, June 13, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The newly formed Ontario Bean Growers will be up and running July 1, says its new general manager Erin Morgan.

As of July 1, all bean farmers will report production and pay license fees of $6.60 per tonne (30 cents per hundredweight) to the new Ontario Bean Growers organization. It’s an amalgamation of the Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board and the Ontario Coloured Bean Growers Association. Its new office is on Lorne Avenue East in Stratford.

The board has the option to change the license fee annually, says Morgan, whose former last name was Fletcher. She has experience with an amalgamation of organizations as a former manager at Grain Farmers of Ontario, which is an amalgamation of the wheat, corn and soybean organizations.

During the bean groups’ amalgamation, the process hit some rocky patches with the bean producers marketing board pulling out of the planned merger and then transferring $1 million of its assets to a newly created organization just after the outcome of the producer vote in favour of proposal was announced. But the marketing board returned the assets about a month later after being reassured by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission they’d be used for white bean research and promotion.

Morgan says there are still some minor administrative matters to implement before the bean organization is up and running, such a closing bank accounts and opening new ones and finalizing the draft general regulations. The Ontario government passed the marketing regulation Thursday and the Farm Products Marketing Act was also changed to recognize the new organization.

The farm products marketing commission is appointing the first seven-member board. The board chair will be named at the first board meeting, she says.

Ontario Bean Growers’ members produce 15 different types of beans on 130,000 acres annually. BF