WINNIPEG - The time has come to strip the Canadian Wheat Board's decades-old monopoly on the sale of western Canadian grain, re-elected Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Tuesday following the majority election win by the Conservatives.

Since the 1940s, Prairies farmers have had to sell their wheat and barley to the board, which in turn exports it to foreign markets. It is the largest marketer of wheat and barley in the world and the last remaining board of its kind.

The Conservatives have long pledged to end the monopoly and allow farmers to sell grain to whomever they choose. But the party wasn't able to pass the necessary legislation in a minority Parliament.

With a majority, the Conservatives can finally move.

"I don't see the monopoly surviving," Ritz said in a phone interview while removing election signs in his Saskatchewan riding. "It's time we got into the 21st century out here in the West."

Those who want to preserve the monopoly sprang into action Tuesday.

The chair of the Canadian Wheat Board issued a statement urging the federal government to leave the board's fate in the hands of farmers.

Allen Oberg said the Conservatives should respect the democratically elected directors of the board. The majority of directors were elected on a platform of strong support for the current structure, he said.

In that same spirit of democracy, Oberg said, members of the marketing board should decide its fate in an internal vote.

"This is an organization that is not only controlled by farmers but paid for by farmers, so that decision ... should be in the hands of those that are most effected," he said.

But Ritz said Canadian growers are losing out to other countries that have embraced the free market.

"Australia, which is deregulated, is gaining acreage. Ontario, which is deregulated, has almost tripled their grain acreage," the minister said. "In Western Canada, the breadbasket of the world, we're losing acres to wheat, durum and barley."

Deregulation doesn't necessarily mean the end of the organization that has been around since the Depression, Ritz suggested.

"Certainly there will still be a role for the wheat board to play. Look at the marketing system they have around the world. They tell me they are the best and I guess we'll put that to the test."

But Oberg said survival of the board would be in doubt if it couldn't control marketing of Canadian grains. Australia's wheat board is essentially defunct with all its assets sold, he said.

"Obviously, without a monopoly, (the Canadian Wheat Board) would be a much smaller and very much less of a player than it is today."

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who leads the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party, said the board could expand into other areas such as pulses and off-board grains.

"That might provide an opportunity for its expansion and continued existence," he said. "If the wheat board is as successful as they are at marketing board grains to the world, they'd be able to withstand competition."

While his government has advocated giving farmers a choice, Wall said the fate of the board ultimately rests with the federal government.

Some are urging the Conservatives to use their majority and abolish the board's monopoly in time for the new crop year in August. Kevin Bender, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said opening up the market would simply give farmers more choice.

"Those farmers who still want to use the wheat board or sell collectively would have the option of doing that," Bender said. "Those who want to seek other markets or sell through other brokerages would have the ability to do that."

The wheat board was created in the 1930s to help farmers deal with plummeting prices. It was initially a voluntary organization but farmers have had to sell to the board since 1943.