The Canola Council of Canada has slashed its budget by 40 per cent for the upcoming year.

The organization is revamping its priorities to be more effective and efficient in growing Canadian canola markets and production.

The changes, which include a shift in canola promotion, the council’s role in agronomy and funding, received unanimous support from the council’s board of directors. But is it enough to get Richardson International to rejoin?

That company stunned the industry a year ago by dropping out of the canola council, citing concerns about high membership fees, unneeded market promotion and a duplication of agronomy services.

As of last week Richardson hadn’t reviewed the council’s new priorities, but is willing to, company senior vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel Jean-Marc Ruest said in an interview Dec. 7.

“If they (council) feel they have addressed those concerns and have a proposal they would like to make to us, we’ll listen…”.

The canola council would welcome Richardson’s return.

“As a value chain organization our goal is to include as many of the real participants in our industry as possible,” council president Jim Everson said in an interview Dec. 5. “It is valuable to have them (Richardson) as funders and supporters of the council. But our responsibility as the canola council is to the whole value chain… and not just any one part of the value chain.”

For the full story see the Dec. 13 print edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.