I should start by saying that I am not a shareholder of this...

I should start by saying that I am not a shareholder of this company but used to be as a wheat grower.

The AWB is a company who has sole vesting rights on the export of wheat from Australia. That is to say that no-one else can sell Austrlian wheat abroad. They in effect have a government sanctioned monopoly. Protection not enjoyed by any other company listed on the ASX. The AWB has a team of spin doctors dedicated to keeping graingrowers convinced that it is in the wheatgrowers interest to have a single desk selling system. However it does not take a rocket science degree to understand that the interest of the AWB lies in rewarding shareholders firstly.

However the bolts are getting looser and this week will see a major political movement by another co-operative owned by growers in Australia's largest grain growing state of WA. CBH is a grower owned co-operative who itself has sole vesting rights over coarse grains such as barley, canola, lupins and number of other niche grains. All of the State's grain passes through CBH infrastructure including the majority crop of wheat however the vesting rights for wheat are with the AWB. Here's where it gets interesting. CBH stands to benefit greatly by seeing the removal of all single desk marketing arrangements because they want to be able to trade in wheat - remembering profit in this industry lies in volume.

Even more interesting is that CBH has a JV arrangement with the Salim Group, a multinational Asian grain buying outfit, in particular a number of flour mills in Indonesia. But get this, CBH cannot buy Australian wheat off its co-operative member base to put through these flour mills in Indonesia. And in fact the AWB blocked a recent application to purchase permit forcing CBH to acquire wheat from the Black Sea region east of Europe.

I believe CBH has been bloody smart here because the AWB spin team has been running a lot of TV commercials warning growers of the threat posed by the Black Sea region. Growers will now begin to see through this spin and as a result I can see pressure coming on the Federal Govt to remove the vesting rights for wheat granted to AWB (sole acquirer). AWB's share price will be crucified in this situation and for those of us who have been fighting for our rights to maximise income on our hard earned grain crop it is going to be a wonderful day! Add to this, the AWB has also just lost a million tonne contract to Iraq. Shareholders of AWB beware. There is a storm brewing!