Canola discussions continue

“Importers from China appear to be unwilling to negotiate new contracts going forward so, essentially, there are no new sales of canola seed to China at this time,” Everson said. “Unfortunately importers are not interested in transacting new contracts.”

Everson said exporters collecting grain in Canada have said contracts that are currently on hand will be honoured so producers can make deliveries.

Rick White with the Canadian Canola Growers Association said they have been discussing ways to help farmers through the financial difficulties including the Cash Advance Program, AgriStability and AgriInvest.

White said they have also considered approaching the government about funding for canola storage.

“If this drags on quite some time, we know farmers will be cash strapped and cash flow will become an issue because deliveries or price won’t be conducive to selling canola on the market,” White said. “If you have to hold your grain everybody doesn’t have all the bins in place so what we’ve been talking about is, longer term, we may have to look to the government for help on infrastructure investment for the building of bins or other storage equipment to keep canola in storage for a long period of time.”

During the webinar, Everson and White answered a variety of questions from participants ranging from whether China was importing Canadian oil and meal, if officials have been told what pests were found in the shipments, if producers would get support to get through the situation to what other markets are being pursued.

One person asked how long it was expected the trade disruption would last.

Everson said he wasn’t sure.

“It really has to do with how quickly a dialogue can take place between Canada and China. A delegation or a good engagement in terms of these technical issues, there has to be a first engagement and that discussion may take some time before the methodology used in these testing procedures can be studied and determination can be made. These are complex issues. There are numerous different issues that China raised. There is a challenge in quickly trying to address them and resolve them. It’s very difficult to estimate how long this may take.”

A question from Bev who was participating in the webinar centered on the pests found in the shipment. She wanted to know if Canadian officials have determined where the pests originated from and if it was possible to isolate the disruption and allow non-affected areas to continue to export.

Everson said the shipments that have been made by Canada are acceptable in terms of the standards China has and that they are high quality.

“Our view, and the view that I understand the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has having tested the same samples on the vessels that have gone to China, they have not detected the same level of risk, the detection of the pests that China has indicated,” Everson said. “Our view is that there’s a need to share that information.”

Everson said they urge China to accept the invitation to meet.

“We strongly believe that we have quality canola in that the shipments that we have sent to China are free of the pests of concern that China has raised,” he said.

Everson said the canola working group has discussed trade retaliation.

“We have been briefed as a working group on various dispute settlement mechanisms and actions that can be taken, diplomatic, legal and technical,” Everson said. “So I would say, really, nothing is off the table. Retaliation is always something that you only want to do as a very last resort. The goal is to be able to have a good discussion about the issues that China has raised and to resolve them through technical discussions.”

The Canola Council will continue to provide updates on its website.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF

by Alice McFarlane

Canola discussions continue

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