A LARGE percentage of Wheatbelt and Great Southern growers are outraged at CBH Grain's move to send thousands of plastic piggy banks to customers throughout Australia.
The marketing move has back-fired and been branded insensitive in a tough season.
Farmers like Bill Lloyd said he "nearly died" when he opened a box containing no correspondence and a plastic pig-shaped money box.
The Lloyd family farms about 3250 hectares at Newdegate and Kukerin and deliver between 3000t-4000t of grain to CBH in a normal year.
"My initial reaction was, what's this nonsense?" Mr Lloyd said.
"I couldn't tell you how much it would have cost to do something like this but the money could have definitely been better spent especially given the (seasonal) circumstances."
Mr Lloyd said he was amazed there was somebody in the CBH office who had the time to waste in order to come up with such an idea.
"It's not so much the fact that it showed up in the mail box at random but it's that somebody has got the time to waste and we're paying wages for that person," he said.
Mr Lloyd said he was furious at the timing of the "small gift" and said that it couldn't have come at a worse time for so many of the growers who wouldn't even get a crop this year.
"We're doing better than a lot of farmers around the place and there are some real hard luck stories out there," he said.
"It's not good enough and those poor buggers who are really struggling don't need any of their money to go towards plastic pigs, no matter how much they cost."
Some CBH employees based in rural WA were also embarrassed about the dissemination of the plastic money boxes.
"I don't know how long it took to organise but the timing was not on," one CBH employee said.
"I don't care how long ago they were ordered, just because they arrived at the CBH office it didn't mean they had to be put in the post to farmers throughout South Australia, NSW, Victoria and especially WA in what has turned out to be the season from hell for farming families."
Mr Lloyd agreed with the CBH employee and said he thought majority of the CBH staff based throughout rural Australia would be embarrassed.
"It's plain stupidity and that's not to say there aren't some very good people at CBH but I'd really love to know what this cost," he said.
The pink and blue piggy banks were posted to every grower in Australia who received a Loyalty Payment for marketing grain through CBH in the 2009/10 season.
CBH has since apologised to growers who were upset or annoyed by the "small gift" used to promote increased awareness of the 2010 CBH Grain Loyalty Payment.
"As we have said to any growers who have personally contacted us about it, we welcome feedback, good and bad and we understand why some might hold strong views about it in what has become a really bad year for many growers," CBH Grain general manager Brian Mumme said.
"The decision to do this, including the ordering of the money boxes, was taken before the worsening of the drought in September and October."
Mr Mumme said in hindsight CBH Grain might not have done the promotion because it might be seen as insensitive.
He noted, however, CBH Grain also had some growers contact the office since receiving the money boxes and requested more for their children or grandchildren.
He said if any growers had received money boxes that they didn't want, they were welcome to return them at their convenience to a CBH office and arrangements could be made for their redistribution to others who would like them.
"It might be useful to provide some context to the communications plan we developed this year to increase awareness of the 2010 Loyalty Payment," Mr Mumme said.
"As our grower members know CBH is now operating in a much more competitive environment.
"If CBH Grain loses market share, it not only raises CBH Grain's average cost per tonne but also threatens to reduce the volume of grain in our network, potentially increasing average storage and handling costs per tonne.
"The CBH Grain Loyalty Payment is one of the unique mechanisms we have to return value to growers and to differentiate ourselves from other marketers.
"Last year was the first year we made the payment and the feedback indicated some growers were not aware what the payment was for or were uncertain about our intention to keep paying it.
"This year we wanted to make a bigger effort to better inform growers about their individual payments and to increase awareness generally of the payment.
"The piggy banks were seen as one, relatively low cost way of helping with that.
"Because of our purchasing power with suppliers, the cost was kept to around $10 each, including postage, or the equivalent of around 1.3 cents for every tonne of grain on which we made the Loyalty Payment.
"This was seen as being cheaper, more long lasting and more memorable than running an advertising campaign."
Mr Mumme said the money boxes were also intended to be a reminder that, like coins, a Loyalty Payment of $2.90 a tonne adds up and the average total Loyalty Payment to CBH growers was around $3000.
He also said the promotion wasn't meant to be condescending or disrespectful.
"Nothing could be further from our objectives as a co-operative controlled by WA growers," he said.
"CBH is aware more than anybody of the financial and emotional pain the current season is causing many of our members.
"In good seasons and bad we value our growers' loyalty and our management and employees have been working harder than ever this season to maximise the value growers get for the grain they do produce this year.
"We won't get it right all the time and again, we apologise to those growers who were upset by this part of the promotion campaign.
"They can be assured their concerns have been heard."
