Canola Council of Canada President JoAnne Buth thanked the Government of Canada for its efforts on behalf of Canadian canola growers this past week in China.
Buth welcomed news of China’s interest in increasing its imports of Canadian canola oil, but cautioned that work must continue on re-opening the Chinese market for Canadian canola seed.
Buth was in China with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Agriculture and Agri-food Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, along with other senior government negotiators, all of whom pressed China for resumption of canola seed trade. Prime Minister Harper raised the issue directly with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Minister Ritz also advanced the issue in meetings with Ministries of Agriculture and AQSIQ – China’s regulatory authority . “The government and industry are using every opportunity here in China to re-open the market,” said Buth.
Minister Ritz met with Sinograin Oil, the state-owned organization responsible for national reserves of grains and edible oil. In the meeting, Sinograin indicated plans to increase its Canadian canola oil imports in 2010 by up to 200,000 tonnes more than the 150,000 tonnes of Canadian canola oil it bought in 2009.
“This would be worth about $180 million to Canada’s canola industry,” said Buth. “Canola oil is the healthiest cooking oil in the world and we are encouraged by China’s interest in increasing its imports.”
Buth cautioned that “while we welcome the news that Sinograin is committed to purchasing more canola oil, we remain deeply concerned about the continuing quarantine on our canola seed. We are pleased that the Government of Canada raised this concern at every level this past week. It is important that we continue to press China to take steps to resume their imports of seed.”
As of November 15, 2009, China has been requiring a phytosanitary certificate for canola seed shipments certifying that the shipments are free from blackleg disease. Blackleg is a serious plant disease of canola that can result in significant yield loss in susceptible varieties and it commonly occurs in canola growing regions throughout the world, including China. The Chinese have indicated that they have non-virulent blackleg strains while Canada has virulent strains that could impact their rapeseed crop.
In the last ten years Canada has shipped over 10 million tonnes to China with no reports of blackleg transfer to the Chinese rapeseed crop.
China is an important market for Canadian canola. In 2008-09 China was Canada’s top canola seed market, importing 2.87 million tonnes valued at $1.3 billion.
