Imports of tomato and carrot seeds will be banned from a nursery of Satimex Quedlinburg, in Germany, as well as seeds for corn from a nursery of Limagrain Europe, in France, tomato seeds from a nursery of Axia Vegetable Seeds, in the Netherlands, and seeds for soybeans from a nursery of Semences Prograin, in Canada, Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, has long aimed to become less dependent on imported seeds for a number of crops but it still relies on foreign seeds for corn, some vegetables, sugar beet and sunflower.

Last week, Russia’s agriculture ministry proposed that the government limits seed imports by setting up quotas, aiming to stimulate domestic production.

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McCormick Canada, the Canadian arm of Baltimore-area condiment and spice maker McCormick and Co., on Monday announced it had completed a “multi-million dollar expansion” at its London, Ont. plant to blend, bottle and package French’s ketchup.

Bottling of French’s ketchup began at the London plant last month, the company said Monday, but added that “full production ramps up this week.” An exact dollar figure wasn’t given for the cost of the expansion.

McCormick said it would continue to source 100 per cent of its tomatoes for French’s ketchup in Canada from the Leamington, Ont. area and would continue to offer the product in four varieties: original, garlic, low-sodium, and no-sugar-added.

By bringing its ketchup line to London, McCormick said it would be “deepening its local roots” and transitioning away from a “third-party Canadian supplier.” The French’s line has been packed in Canada by Toronto-based Select Food Products since 2016.

McCormick has operated at London since 1959, when it bought the Club House brand of spices and extracts, a business founded there in 1883 by Gorman, Dyson and Co.

The French’s brand, along with Frank’s RedHot and others, came to McCormick in 2017 when it bought the food business of British consumer health and hygiene firm Reckitt Benckiser for US$4.2 billion.

Shortly before that sale, the French’s brand had made a splash in Canada by promoting its use of tomatoes grown in the Leamington area and by bringing the product’s bottling to Toronto.

Ketchup provenance by then had become a sore spot among some Canadian consumers, after Kraft Heinz shed its Leamington tomato processing plant in 2014 and began bottling its Heinz ketchup for the Canadian market at plants in the U.S.

Kraft Heinz sold the Leamington plant in 2015 to an Ontario consortium, Highbury Canco, and still sources some tomato products from the latter company. Kraft Heinz also announced last November it would resume packing Heinz ketchup in Canada for the Canadian market, this time at its plant in Montreal. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The U.S.-based food processing giant and the Quebec government on Nov. 17 announced the expansion plan for the company’s Mont Royal plant, which today makes products such as KD Mac + Cheese, Philadelphia cream cheese, Renee’s dressings and Kraft peanut butter.

The new ketchup line is expected to start operating in late summer of 2021 and produce over 100 million pounds of Heinz ketchup for the Canadian market within its first two years, “as production ramps up.”

The expansion is expected to add about 30 jobs at Mont Royal and help maintain about 750 more, provincial Transport Minister Chantal Rouleau said in a release from investment agency Investissement Quebec International.

Heinz ketchup sold in Canada has been made at plants in the U.S. since 2014, shortly after the company said it would shut its processing plant at Leamington, Ont., southeast of Windsor. Kraft Heinz reached a deal the following summer to sell that plant to a consortium of Ontario investors operating as Highbury Canco.

Kraft Heinz today bills itself as Highbury Canco’s largest customer, using Leamington-grown tomatoes in Heinz tomato juice and canned beans and Classico pasta sauces, among other non-ketchup goods. Kraft Heinz also still runs a tomato seed operation out of Leamington, supplying most processing-grade Heinz tomato seeds used on farms in Eastern Canada and the eastern U.S.

But the provenance of Heinz ketchup sold in Canada since 2014 has been a sore spot for some consumers, who vowed on social media to seek out rival ketchups made at plants within Canada.

“Kraft Heinz Canada is pleased to partner with the Quebec government on this investment in bringing ketchup production back to Canada from the U.S.,” Bruno Keller, president for Kraft Heinz Canada, said Nov. 17 in the company’s release.

“Through our partnership with Quebec and increased efficiencies at our Mont Royal facility, it became possible to return this iconic product back to Canada for Canadians at this time.”

Other media outlets have quoted company representatives as saying the tomatoes feeding the Montreal plant will at first continue to come from U.S. farms with which the company has contracts, though more of those tomatoes may be sourced from Canada in the future.

The Montreal plant, Keller said, “has been an important part of the Quebec economy for over six decades, and we are delighted to be able to help feed more Canadians every day thanks to investments like this one.”

The Quebec government’s hand in the project is a $2 million loan from Investissement Quebec’s ESSOR program, which offers loans, loan guarantees or financial assistance to”substantial long-term development projects” carried out within Quebec involving eligible expenditures of at least $100,000.

“With this new production line, (Kraft Heinz) is taking concrete steps to ramp up local production and continue its growth here,” Stephane Paquet, CEO of Montreal economic development agency Montreal International, said in Investissement Quebec’s release.

“This decision is proof positive that foreign subsidies too have a role to play in promoting and expanding local sourcing.”

Heinz’s relationship with Canada dates back to 1909, when Henry Heinz picked Leamington as “the most suitable site” for a pickle packing plant, the first expansion of his company’s operations outside the U.S. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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In the notice, which was seen by Reuters, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the restrictions also apply to families of fruits that include apples, pears, cranberries, blueberries, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. It was not clear if other countries are affected.

“Please note that the CFIA is working with industry to propose pest risk mitigation measures to the EU for these commodities, which may allow exports to resume,” said the notice.

The new European Union rules do not apply to frozen and dried fruit. There should also be no issues with sea containers that arrive in the EU with export documents dated before Sept. 1, the agency said.

The EU office in Ottawa and Canadian Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Canada’s agriculture sector already faces other trade disputes, including an ongoing spat with China over Canadian canola, pork and beef.

Beth Cavers, a program administrator with the B.C. Cherry Association, said the pending EU ban should not affect this year’s cherry harvest, which wrapped up on Thursday, as the fruit is packed and shipped immediately.

It could, however, have serious implications for the 2020 harvest if unresolved, she added.

“There were some indications that they were reviewing this, but we didn’t know they were just going to shut down the border to cherries like this,” Cavers said by telephone when asked if industry had received prior notice.

In 2018, Canada shipped about $3.1 million in cherries to the EU.

— Kelsey Johnson reports on Canadian economics for Reuters from Ottawa.

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Under the deal, the vast majority of Mexican tomato exports will be subject to border inspections. Still, the accord provides a measure of relief to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his dealings with the Trump administration.

In May, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed a 17.5 per cent tariff on Mexican tomatoes after the two sides failed to renew an earlier agreement that halted a U.S. anti-dumping probe. Since then, the two sides have held negotiations in search of a deal.

Calling the outcome of talks “good news” that kept the U.S. market open for tomato exporters, Marquez said on Twitter that the accord between the U.S. Commerce Department and Mexican producers had been reached shortly before midnight on Aug. 20.

A deal needed to be reached by Tuesday night to allow for a 30-day comment period before a Sept. 19 Commerce Department deadline for completing its anti-dumping investigation.

In a joint statement, several Mexican agricultural associations including the SPTN tomato producers group, said the accord included a “controversial proposal” to carry out border inspections on 92 per cent of exports to the U.S. for quality control purposes.

The deal also envisaged raising the reference price of specialty tomatoes, and an increase of 40 per cent in the price of organic tomatoes above that of conventional ones, it said.

Earlier this month, the Mexican government had rejected as “totally unacceptable” a proposal to subject all tomato exports from Mexico to border inspections.

Relations between president Lopez Obrador and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump have been strained over trade and immigration. However, the origins of the tomato spat predate the New York real estate magnate’s time in the White House.

The current tomato agreement face its next so-called “sunset review” by September 2024, the statement added.

According to the Mexican government, there are some 1.5 million tomato growers in Mexico, and exports of the product to the United States are worth around US$2 billion annually.

The U.S. is also by far the largest buyer of Canadian tomato exports, accounting for about 98 per cent of Canada’s international sales of the crop.

The total value of Canada’s U.S.-bound exports of fresh and chilled tomatoes reached C$385.9 million in 2018 — down from C$410.9 million in 2017, but up from each of the previous four years, according to Statistics Canada.

— Reporting for Reuters by Dave Graham and Sharay Angulo. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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“The Department of Commerce remains committed to ensuring that American domestic industries are protected from unfair trading practices,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “We remain optimistic that there will be a negotiated solution.”

The tariff will go into effect in about a week.

Mexican Deputy Economy Minister Luz Maria de la Mora said Monday that U.S. consumers will face financial impacts after they could not reach agreement.

“We’re very disappointed but the good news is that negotiations continue, looking for a solution. And we hope that in the coming weeks we can in fact reach an agreement,” de la Mora said.

Mexico exports around US$2 billion worth of tomatoes to the U.S. annually, according to de la Mora.

Mexican imports account for just over half of the U.S. tomato market, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

Ross said the U.S. will refund any tariff deposits if a new deal is reached or if the U.S. International Trade Commission determines there is no injury based on its own independent investigation.

Ross said in early February that the U.S. would resume an anti-dumping investigation into Mexican tomatoes, withdrawing from a so-called suspension agreement that halted the anti-dumping case as long as Mexican producers sold their tomatoes above a pre-determined price. U.S. growers and lawmakers say that deal has failed.

A trade war over tomatoes has been averted twice since the 1990s, most recently in the 2013 deal that put a price floor on Mexican tomatoes sold in the U.S. while barring U.S. growers from pursuing anti-dumping charges against Mexican exporters.

Fruit and vegetable growers in the southeastern U.S. had persuaded the Trump administration to seek the ability to impose seasonal anti-dumping duties against Mexican produce in negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement. But the demand was withdrawn in the final talks over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal reached last October.

A month later, the Florida Tomato Exchange, which represents growers in the state, petitioned the Commerce Department to terminate the 2013 tomato pact. It argued that the agreement could not be enforced and contained too many loopholes through which Mexican growers could dump tomatoes in the U.S. market.

The U.S. is also by far the largest buyer of Canadian tomato exports, accounting for about 98 per cent of Canada’s international sales of the crop.

The total value of Canada’s U.S.-bound exports of fresh and chilled tomatoes reached C$385.9 million in 2018 — down from C$410.9 million in 2017, but up from each of the previous four years, according to Statistics Canada.

— David Shepardson is a Reuters reporter covering U.S. trade and transportation issues from Washington. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Nunhems, which has a portfolio of about 1,200 seed varieties in over two dozen different vegetable crops worldwide, sells seeds in North America for tomatoes, spinach, peppers, carrots, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks and melons.

“Through this and related moves, Bayer is confident of fully addressing all concerns of the European Commission” and its regulators on Bayer’s proposed C$80 billion merger with chemical and seed firm Monsanto, the company said last Wednesday in a release.

BASF has already done a 5.9 billion-euro (C$9.35 billion) deal with Bayer for a number of Bayer’s Crop Science businesses, including its worldwide glufosinate-ammonium business and related LibertyLink technology, “essentially all” Bayer’s field crop seed businesses and related research and development capacity.

The seed businesses for sale in that deal — which is conditional on Bayer closing its deal to buy Monsanto — include Bayer’s canola and oilseed rape businesses in North America and Europe, among others.

The European Commission, Bayer noted, recently extended the examination deadline for the Bayer/Monsanto deal until April 5.

Bayer said it’s still “working closely with the authorities worldwide” to close its Monsanto deal in its second quarter of 2018. — AGCanada.com Network

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The board of directors of the marketing board has been dismissed until new elections are held, as expected by the end of 2017.

“I have been closely monitoring the 2017 contract negotiations between Ontario’s tomato growers and processors and was recently informed by growers, processors and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC) that negotiations have reached an impasse, jeopardizing this year’s crop season,” provincial Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal said.

“Risking this year’s tomato crop, and the thousands of jobs that support it, is something I am not prepared to do.”

Former Ontario agriculture minister Elmer Buchanan is the trustee and he will assume the powers of the board to negotiate a contract for the 2017 growing season.

Buchanan was, until recently, vice-chair of the OFMPC, the arm’s-length body that regulates agriculture organizations and marketing boards in the province.

He will hold the powers of the board until new board elections are held.

The former chair of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) board is calling for a quick new vote for a new board of directors.

Francis Dobbelaar, who farms near Wallaceburg, about 40 km south of Sarnia, said the board is democratically elected, and he believes it had the support of growers.

However, he expects Buchanan will appoint negotiators for processing tomato contracts.

“For all the wrong reasons the government is stepping in to make this decision. Obviously rural Ontario is not any concern and this is the tip of the iceberg.

“So much damage can be done to the industry in the short term. There will be contracts signed and all will be signed under duress,” he said, referring to the fact that farmers will have to negotiate independently with processors and will already have inputs and equipment bought for 2017 and beyond.

The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processors Association (OFVPA), meanwhile, hailed Leal’s move in a separate statement Friday.

“We look forward to working jointly with the OPVG, their appointed trustee, and our grower partners in putting together the details for this progressive move,” OFPVA president Steve Lamoure said.

Don Epp, OFVPA’s executive director, described the move as “a great opportunity to increase employment, economic investment, and grower tonnage. Working together truly works.”

The impasse is not surprising, as Leal quashed an OFPMC attempt to change the way that processing tomato contracts are negotiated, after an outcry from growers about the loss of power and the need for more consultation.

Contracts for all processing tomato growers are currently negotiated by the marketing board. That gave farmers the power to collectively bargain for price and conditions. If there’s no agreement, both sides submit a proposal to an arbitrator who makes one submitted price, or the other.

Processors have been looking to be able to negotiate directly with farmers, and the proposed OFPMC regulation would have given them that, by making the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers a producer association without negotiating powers.

The processors issued a statement early in 2017 in which they said that without regulatory changes they would not be negotiating contracts for the 2017 growing season.

In August, Minister Leal put a halt to the OFPMC process citing the need for greater study and industry consultation before making such a significant change in how tomatoes are marketed in the province.

In a statement Friday he said his actions remain within the spirit of his directive in August to “develop a regulatory framework to achieve reform for the 2018 growing season and beyond.”

Dobbelaar said the OPVG had a report by independent consultant John Groenewegen, ready to be released next Wednesday, showing the competitiveness of the industry. Government already had seen that report. Dobbelaar didn’t know what would happen to the report now that a trustee is running the board.

The board had already negotiated contracts for processing crops such as sweet corn, carrots, onions and cucumbers for 2017, Dobbelaar said. It was negotiating with Sunbrite and ConAgra, when the two processors didn’t show up for a final day of negotiations on March 1.

“It signified there was a political change,” he said.

Highbury Canco (HCC) has been the largest push behind changes, Dobbelaar said. HCC was seen as the saviour of the former Heinz tomato processing plant in Leamington, but has significantly cut wages and costs and now Dobbelaar said it is going after the price it pays to farmers.

“One particular company, HCC, didn’t like the rules, so they tipped the tables in their favour,” he said.

The way the processing vegetable marketing board has been treated should be a warning to other agriculture boards, he said.

He also blames the high cost of doing business in Ontario, especially electricity costs, as a reason for processors to push the need for savings down to farmers.

“We had a good system, but the political optics weren’t just proper,” he said. “When the dust clears and the real truth comes out, the government will have made a big mistake.”

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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The Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, located in Lincoln, Ont., will build on work done earlier by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, who will continue to be heavily involved in the research.

With this investment, our apple and tomato growers are benefiting from research on disease-resistant varieties,” Jim Brandle, Vineland’s CEO said. “Our goal is always to increase industry competitiveness while meeting consumer preferences for locally-grown crops.”

Both crops are economically significant to Canada.

Greenhouse tomatoes bring in $516 million annually at the farm gate, as well as $311 million in exports as of 2015.

Apples are Canada’s second most valuable fruit after blueberries, earning $181 million at the farm gate, as well as $50 million in exports, also in 2015.

Vineland, located in the Niagara region, has significant expertise in horticulture research and production.

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“Everyone was encouraged to increase early and season-long monitoring of fields, gardens, and greenhouses in order to protect crops from late blight, as well as have a quicker response to any perceived infections,” said Robert Spencer, commercial horticulture specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

Late blight was largely responsible for the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, which resulted in the death and mass emigration of millions of people. Each year, late blight reduces the yields of potatoes and tomatoes in the field and can cause major losses in potato tubers in storage.

Monitoring of spore levels found increases in some regions, but no cases of late blight had been confirmed in Alberta as of late August.

However, it is recommended all potato or tomato growers — both commercial operations and home gardeners — take steps to reduce the threat of the disease overwintering. This includes ensuring plants die down quickly by using a desiccant (diquat) or mechanical treatments and then disposing of stems and foliage, either by burial, freezing, or composting, said Spencer.

“Avoid placing infected materials in uncovered compost piles as spores may be produced and spread the disease to nearby plantings of susceptible crops,” said Spencer. “Piles may be covered with a tarp until the materials have frozen and are completely dead.”

Potato tubers are most likely to harbour the disease and so should be carefully graded to remove infected tubers.

“Commercial seed growers should be prepared to further grade seed tubers in the spring, and mancozeb-based seed treatments should be applied to try and protect developing crops from seed-borne late blight,” said Spencer.

Culled tubers can be fed to livestock or may be chopped, incorporated and buried, or can be placed in covered piles until they freeze completely.

“The late blight pathogen normally cannot survive away from living tissues,” said Spencer. “While the disease can survive for a time on tomato fruit, spores will not carry over on tomato seed. The disease can be introduced on living tomato transplants that are brought in from areas where late blight survives the winter.”

In Alberta, the late blight pathogen does not survive or overwinter in the soil, so growers should not worry about reinfection by planting in or adjacent to a field where late blight has occurred, provided there are no surviving tubers that could reintroduce the disease through infected volunteer plants. However, rotating between locations is always recommended, whenever possible, to prevent the buildup of other diseases.

“All growers should take the time to assess the past growing season and the level of risk of late blight infection or reinfection that they will face for the next growing season,” said Spencer. “Determine where disease might have come from and put preventive measures in place to protect against infection. It is in everyone’s best interest to manage late blight, as this is a community disease.”

For more information, search for ‘late blight’ at agriculture.alberta.ca.

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