(Resource News International) — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has scheduled a conference call with the grain trade for Friday morning to potentially discuss new regulations on canola business to China, industry participants confirmed.
Debbie Belanger, manager of communications with the Canola Council of Canada, said the council learned from CFIA on Wednesday that “China is requiring a phytosanitary certificate for blackleg-free canola by Nov. 15.”
The council is now working with CFIA and is hopeful that a plan for moving forward would be in place by Monday (Oct. 26), she said.
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Belanger said it was still too early to say what the impact of the new requirements from China would have on the canola trade.
A market analyst said the speculation was that China would impose new regulatory reforms on imports of Canadian canola.
He noted China had recently had problems with blackleg (a fungus in canola) in shipments from Australia and will likely be extending any regulations that came out of that situation to Canada.
A canola exporter confirmed there was some discussion going on about phytosanitary certificates on canola shipments to China, but said there was not yet any concern about sales being cancelled.
Commercial buyers on Thursday backed away sharply from the ICE Futures Canada canola market, given the uncertainty of the China situation, the analyst said.
“We don’t know what will happen yet; it’s all rumour and innuendo,” he commented, noting that the situation in flaxseed was likely in the back of the canola industry’s mind.
Canadian flaxseed shipments to Europe, Canada’s largest customer for the commodity, have been halted since genetically modified organisms were found in Canadian flaxseed earlier this year.
China is one of the largest customers for Canadian canola, and any disruption to trade there would be a major blow to the sector.
CFIA confirmed a conference call was taking place Friday morning, but could not provide any further details.
