ALBERTA GRAINS CELEBRATES A DECADE OF PDQ
BY IAN DOIG
Price & Data Quotes (PDQ) is a Prairiewide daily cash bids website launched in September 2015 by the Alberta Wheat Commission. To celebrate the price discovery platform’s tenth year, Alberta Grains asks users to fill out a short survey located on the PDQ homepage at pdqinfo.ca. The survey will remain open until Sept. 30, and the responses will be used to improve the service.
The creation of PDQ followed the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on Aug. 1, 2012. With the freedom to market their own products, farmers required easy access to timely, accurate and transparent cash pricing. Then-federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz supported the introduction of price discovery into the marketplace. The Wheat Commission was assigned the task to create the necessary platform, with pricing information to be provided by grain companies.
Ritz pledged an initial $742,000 to support the launch of the project through the AgriRisk Initiatives program. Alberta Grains funds the ongoing maintenance and operation of the website.
Through PDQ, farmers and crop marketing professionals can find daily spot and forward bids on canola, CPSR, CWAD, CWRS and yellow peas in nine zones that cover Western Canada. All grain company data supplied to PDQ is aggregated and supported by three data sources, and price data is given in the form of regional averages. This real-world data provides a baseline for individual price negotiation between farmer and grain buyer.
The site now has 9,000 registered users. The survey is intended to better characterize who, in general, these PDQ users are. Preliminary results indicate most are farmers. While some grain companies now offer detailed pricing tools to their customers, some of these farmers continue to see value in PDQ and want Alberta Grains to continue to operate it. “We have heard from farmers who say never, never kill PDQ; we love it,” said Shannon Sereda, Alberta Grains director, government relations, policy and markets. “We would love to continue to offer this service and want to make sure it continues to benefit farmers, who are our target. And we’re open to all suggestions for enhancements. We will re-evaluate PDQ once the survey is complete.”
Preliminary survey results suggest most users are from the Prairie provinces, but some live in Quebec, Ontario and even in other countries. Most use PDQ to help keep tabs on the market and appreciate that it supports general overall analysis with timely, regional information and access to historical prices. Respondents have noted that it supports market transparency and would like to see the inclusion of additional crops such as lentils and flax.
Among the platform’s existing features are regional and deferred price widgets and price threshold notifications. A recent enhancement, regional prices are now linked to the futures market to show basis by area, and users can customize their individual dashboard.
Sereda emphasized PDQ is intended to be a free, practical resource. Used in conjunction with additional resources, it’s one of many tools used for decision-making when farmers market their grain. A farmer may use a grain company’s app to determine its daily prices, while PDQ allows them to scope out average prices beyond their immediate area. “It’s not meant to be precise,” said Sereda. “The nature of the system is to be a point of reference. Farmers know they have a starting point. They can see what they’re being offered by a buyer and can check that price against regional averages and other sources such as the Farmbucks app. We’re not the only game in town.”
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