Western Canada’s pulse industry sees itself as one of the big future winners because of agriculture minister Gerry Ritz’s latest week-long trade mission to India, Turkey and Rome.
In India, Ritz won a political commitment from agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to find a way to allow fumigation of Canadian pulse shipments at Indian ports of entry.
India’s refusal to fumigate for stem and bulb nematode has meant added costs for Canadian exporters and lost sales.
The political commitment follows a technical agreement on the issue worked out by officials last summer.
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“Having the minister get involved in this was important and raising it to the political level was necessary,” Pulse Canada chief executive officer Gordon Bacon said.
“The trade says it costs up to $25 a tonne and that means either the Indian consumer is paying more or the farmer is receiving less or a little bit of both.”
Bacon said he expects the deal to be worked out within six months.
And he said there are opportunities to increase sales to India, already Canada’s largest pulse market with sales last year of $533 million.
“There is enormous demand and the question is about whether there is demand at sufficient values to do business,” said Bacon.
He said there is an effort in India to increase consumer acceptance of yellow peas, not a traditional part of the diet, because it is a lower cost pulse product.
However, he said the most frequent question asked by Indians during the visit was the problem of Saskatchewan’s poor harvest weather and the deteriorating quality of the 2010 crop.
“The importers are as interested in the weather forecast for Saskatchewan as the Saskatchewan farmers are.”
During a Sept. 16 callback from New Delhi, Ritz said the deal with India will “reduce uncertainty, significant delays and costs to Canadian farmers and exporters while ensuring uninterrupted supply of pulses to India.”
Currently Canadian shipments found infected with nematode are either rejected or have to travel to Singapore for fumigation.
Bacon said the pulse industry also could benefit from an agreement-in-principle to begin preliminary talks next month on a Canada-Turkey free trade deal.
Turkey already imports $100 million worth of pulse crops each year, often to resell them to neighbouring Middle Eastern and Balkan countries. As recently as 2006, sales were $20 million.
“A free trade deal would remove some tariffs and barriers,” said Bacon. “I think there are opportunities there to build on our higher trade levels once we have established trade patterns and importers see Canada as not just a residual supplier.”
He said one issue will be to deal with Turkey’s policy of imposing temporary bans on imports during Turkish harvest.
The Canadian Wheat Board also applauded Ritz for the announcement of free trade talks with Turkey. In 2009-10, Canada sold more than $30 million worth of wheat and durum to the country.
It said in a Sept. 17 statement that Turkey’s demand for Canadian wheat fluctuates based on the domestic production and quality. “In years when Turkey requires high-quality imports, an agreement would make Prairie wheat more attractive.”
Ritz also visited Rome to press Canada’s case for a change in European and international trade law to allow import of product containing unavoidable low level presence of genetically modified material, even into markets that do not approve GMOs.
