VANCOUVER – Canada is making headway on a variety of pulse-related market access issues.
Prime minister Stephen Harper was in Colombia last week launching bilateral trade talks with a country that bought $28.9 million worth of Canadian pulses in 2006.
Almost simultaneously, talks between Colombia and the United States have stalled as Democrats in the U.S. withdrew support for a free trade deal due to violence against trade union members in the South American country.
Pulse Canada is pushing for pacts with Colombia and Peru, another significant buyer of peas and lentils, to prevent being at a 25 to 85 percent tariff disadvantage to American pulse growers.
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On the opposite side of the globe, only one hurdle remains before Canadian pea producers have their first unfettered access to one of the world’s largest feed markets.
Earlier this year South Korea dropped its punitive tariff system on feed peas, which attached a 20 percent duty to overquota product.
“That’s something that Pulse Canada has been working on for quite some time,” said Carl Potts, director of market development for the commodity association.
Pulse Canada and the federal government had long argued with the Koreans that its tariff quota system was unfair because peas faced bigger constraints getting into the country than competitive ingredients such as soybeans, corn and lupins.
All feed ingredients will now be on a level playing field, although peas face one more stumbling block. Canadian exporters have been reluctant to ship product to that market, even under the tariff-free portion of the quota, because South Korean inspectors often reject shipments.
Feed peas contain foreign material such as wheat chaff, which the Koreans feel could carry Hessian flies, an unwanted pest.
The National Quarantine Services in South Korea and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are trying to devise an inexpensive fumigation protocol that will be acceptable to both countries.
“If we get that one resolved then we should have no market access barriers for Canadian feed pea exports to Korea,” Potts said.
South Korea imports about 14 million tonnes of feed ingredients annually so that could potentially be a big victory, although Potts noted the price would have to be right and market development work completed before any significant volume of peas would move to that market.
Delegates attending the Canadian Special Crops Association’s recent convention were also given updates on other market access issues.
Potts said Canada and India are close to finding a permanent solution to the stem and bulb nematode fumigation issue that has created extra costs and risks for shippers sending product to Canada’s top pulse destination.
India has adopted policies aimed at boosting pulse imports as a way to control food inflation but the phytosanitary issue is working counter to those measures.
In June, a meeting between India’s minister of state for agriculture and Canadian agriculture minister Chuck Strahl resulted in a commitment to finding a quick fix to the lingering trade irritant.
“We’re making a lot of progress there and I believe over the next year we’ll find a permanent solution,” Potts said.
Pulse Canada is pushing for similar action on the China selenium problem, in which shipments of peas destined for the vermicelli market were temporarily disrupted by newly enforced maximum residue limits.
A temporary solution has been to convince the Chinese that the selenium stays with the protein rather than the starch when processed, which means noodles made with the Canadian peas are selenium-free.
However, Pulse Canada wants the Chinese to go one step further by either eliminating the limit or raising it to the point where it won’t hinder other Canadian pulse imports or peas intended for non-starch uses.
On the positive front, Canada is looking forward to increased bean exports to Mexico once the North American Free Trade Agreement tariff rate quota system disappears Jan. 1, 2008.
Pulse Canada has been working with the Mexican bean industry to increase overall bean consumption in an effort to assuage concerns that a flood of Canadian and U.S. beans will displace domestic crops in the non-tariff environment.
