White bean growers and marketing commission settle differences

Monday, December 10, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario White Bean Growers’ Association has agreed to return $1 million in assets to the Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board after receiving assurances that they’d only be used for white bean research and promotion.

Marinus Bakker, vice chair of both the bean producers marketing board and the newly-formed white bean growers association, says the decision to return the assets was made after a Nov. 29 meeting between the marketing board and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission. The marketing board appointed the board members to the growers association and the members of both groups are the same people.

The commission assured the marketing board that its surpluses will be used “specifically for white bean research and ways of growing the market,” Bakker says.

Bakker says the assets haven’t been transferred back yet but the process to return them is ongoing. There’s also a process to determine what happens to the white bean growers association.

The bean producers marketing board is waiting to hear from the commission’s legal counsel and it met again with the commission Monday. Bakker says “we had a good meeting yesterday so it’s going down the right track.”

Geri Kamenz, chair of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, says there was a bit of confusion among the bean producers marketing board “in terms of the level of protection that could be provided those funds to ensure there is somewhat of a legacy for the white bean board.”

A proposal to merge the marketing board with the Ontario Coloured Bean Growers Association calls for the funds to be used only for white bean initiatives. The commission organized a producer vote on the proposal in October. Farmers voted in favour of the merger.

Kamenz says the commission thought the use of the funds had been clearly set out in the voters’ package but “apparently now we’ve made it crystal clear to everyone’s satisfaction.”

The bean producers’ marketing board approved transferring title of its building in London and reserve funds to the newly established Ontario White Bean Growers’ Association just before the outcome of the producer vote was announced.

Grant Jones, chair of the bean producers marketing board and white bean growers association, says he wasn’t able to attend the meeting where the decision to return the assets was made.

Kamenz says the white bean board’s decision to transfer its building and surplus reserve funds to the new organization “never had an impact on the outcome of the vote and whether or not the amalgamation of the two boards was going to move forward.”

This was a “peripheral issue that dealt with the financial resources the white bean board had accumulated over its time,” Kamenz says.

He notes the commission had a lot of questions concerning the asset transfer but the association decided to return the assets because of feedback from growers rather than anything the commission said or did. “The growers did a good job of expressing the concerns that they had,” he says.

As for the merger process, Kamenz says the commission has started working on rewriting the regulations “because we have a new organization in the province.” The new organization will likely be in place by the summer of 2013. BF