Canada’s flax industry is divided on how to rid itself of an unwanted genetically modified variety that has contaminated supplies.
The Flax Council of Canada issued a news release last week stating it backed a grain industry plan to restore access to Europe in 2010 by accepting only crops grown from certified seed tested to be free of CDC Triffid.
The council said while certified seed can be tested, it is too onerous to test farm-saved seed from 12,000 flax growers in a timely manner or ensure reliability of those samples.
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
“We must act quickly and send a strong signal to our European customers that we are doing everything we can to eradicate Triffid from Canadian flax,” said council president Barry Hall.
“With Europe accounting for over 70 percent of flax exports, the very future of our industry is at stake.”
The policy has support of the Manitoba Flax Growers Association.
“We will be dealing with a professional organization where all the names and places are documented and can be easily contacted versus thousands of producers scattered across the Prairies,” said association chair Garvin Kabernick.
“We may have only one opportunity to restore the confidence of our European customers, so it is crucial that we get it right.”
However, Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission chair Allen Kuhlmann said his organization doesn’t share the belief that using certified seed is the panacea.
He said it is a stretch to suggest certified seed will be any more pure than tested farm-saved seed, especially considering two breeder seed varieties recently tested positive for Triffid.
He said he suspects the plan is really motivated by those who want to stop farmers from growing farm-saved seed.
“Grain companies trying to shove things down farmers’ throats really doesn’t sit very well with most producers,” he said.
Kuhlmann worries that a certified-seed only plan for flax is only the first step toward the complete eradication of farm-saved seed.
“I guess we come from different places. The flax council’s budget comes from the people who handle flax – Viterra, Pioneer, Cargill, and so on. Our money comes from producers.”
He said those producers have been calling the commission’s office with grave concerns about the proposal.
The National Farmers Union echoes the sentiment expressed by the commission.
“Grain companies are over-reaching, trying to dictatorially impose their will. The same grain companies that market seeds are trying to make those seeds mandatory,” said NFU president Terry Boehm.
But Hall said characterizing the plan that way is a misrepresentation.
“This is not an issue of certified seed versus farm-saved seed. This is a critical market access issue that affects growers, seed companies and grain companies, as well as our end-use customers. To resolve it requires extraordinary measures.”
Three-quarters of Canada’s flax crop is grown from farm-saved seed. The Canadian Seed Growers Association estimates the cost of switching those acres over to certified seed at $3.5 million.
Kuhlmann said it will be three or four times that amount because grain traders have suggested that’s how many years it will take to clean the system.
Dwayne Juve, a flax grower from Kelvington, Sask., who supports the move to certified seed, thinks the true cost will be less.
He recently sold flax for $9.10 per bushel delivered to plant. He figures he has another $2 invested in cleaning and trucking costs. Juve also recently agreed to buy some Triffid-free certified seed for next year’s crop for $13 per bu.
Given those numbers, Juve figures it will cost him an extra $800 to $1,000 to seed 400 to 500 acres of flax with certified seed instead of farm-saved seed next year.
If farmers grow one million acres of the crop, he calculated the total cost to be $2 million to restore $317 million in trade.
“To my mind, that’s pretty cheap,” he said.
Juve is concerned that even if farmers have their farm-saved seed tested for Triffid, nothing prevents them from dipping into a different bin at seeding time.
