(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Canola Shipments

UPDATED: China stops canola shipments from Canadian company

Mar 5, 2019 | 3:38 PM

UPDATE: Saskatchewan minister of agriculture David Marit says the province responded quickly.

“That’s why we offered conversation with the federal minister this morning,” Marit said. “We reached out to her. She called us back. She’s assured us she’s made it a priority and we have offered our hand to help her in any way we can.

For new Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, this is a quick initiation into international trade disputes.

Former federal agriculture minister and farmer Gerry Ritz says it’s clear this is a warning shot. He says it’s important for the new agriculture minister to act quickly.

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“That could take up to ten years using our legal process and appeals. That means all of our canola, our beef, our pork are at risk,” Ritz said. “We’ve got a brand new minister of agriculture who has been on the job less than a week. This is the first shot across the bow. You call in the Chinese ambassador that same day and say what the hell are you doing and then you’re on a plane over there to start to make your arguments as this is not the way to run a trading operation. They need the product and we have the product.”

Ritz added he’s concerned about the timing of this action from China and its impact on seeding.

“A lot of decisions as to what’s going in the ground have been made and some will be changed. We may see this reflected in less canola acres. That’s not a good thing.” Ritz said.

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Richardson International is confirming that China has cancelled the company’s registration to ship canola into that country.

The company was informed by the federal government that it was told the reason had to do with quality concerns relating to Canadian shipments of canola.

Richardson senior vice-president corporate affairs and general counsel Jean-Marc Ruest says if there is a quality control problem it will be resolved quickly, but if it’s a political issue it will likely take longer.

Although it’s not clear why the exports to China had been stopped, the move comes amid tensions between Canada and China.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF