CALGARY – User pay for inspection services has been introduced by Agriculture Canada.
As of April 24, Agriculture Canada has been charging user fees for services such as meat grading and the issuing of import and export permits.
Wayne Morris of Agriculture Canada said the government will safeguard regulations to ensure food safety. In many cases government staff will carry out plant inspections and issue certificates.
Morris said industry could take over almost entirely in some areas, while in areas that affect the public as a whole, the government and industry will work out a cost-sharing arrangement.
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The beef industry has already started a privatized grading and inspection service.
The costs of beef carcass inspection, set at 50 cents, will be shared between producers and packing plants. An increase will be announced next year. As of April 1, 1996, the government will not be involved in carcass grading.
To replace human graders a mechanical grading system that combines computers and video image analysis will be used in larger beef plants.
Video analysis tested
The video image analysis system, which was tested on 15,000 head this winter, is being analyzed now for accuracy and cost.
“If it does what it’s supposed to do that will probably be the trend of the future, certainly in the larger automated plants,” said Summers.
Smaller plants that can’t afford the sophisticated computer and video system will be looking at finding an outside third party to handle grading.
Under the user-pay system, hog grading charges remain at 15 cents each. Lamb carcasses will cost 66 cents and veal grading charges will be $1.39 each. Poultry grade monitoring services will be charged an hourly inspection fee of $44, as well as an annual fee based on average weekly kill.
Fees will also be charged for import permits, inspections and approvals of plants and animals, including embryos and semen coming into Canada.
Import permits will range from $15 to $29. Import quarantine approvals range from $100 to $300 depending on the animal species.
Inspections will cost $30 and up, depending on the commodity, country of origin and reason it is imported.
Export certification for animals and animal-origin products range from $13 to $104.
For plants, insects, disease cultures and soil imports, inspection fees will be in place. Inspection services provided by the Canadian Grain Commission are also being charged.
Seed potato growers are also faced with new and higher fees.
They will be charged $20 per hectare for field inspections. Formerly they paid $12.50 per hectare. In addition, growers will be charged a $50 application for certification fee to show the potatoes are suitable for export.
There will be no charge for bacterial ring rot analysis this year, said Krushel.
