WINNIPEG (Reuters) – China’s quarantine authority has approved five more crushing plants to accept Canadian canola that is free of blackleg disease.
However, Agriculture Canada officials said there are still only two Chinese crushers that can accept canola that has the plant-killing fungal disease.
As of Nov. 15, 2009, China restricted Canadian canola with blackleg disease to lesser-used ports away from its canola-growing areas.
“There’s no change to the designation China has made to those areas that can receive blackleg-positive canola and those that can’t,” said Jim Everson, the Canola Council of Canada’s vice-president of corporate affairs.
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China halted imports of all Canadian canola, with or without blackleg, when it began an approval process of its crushing plants late last year.
Only the two plants that accept canola with blackleg are relevant to Canada because blackleg is found virtually throughout its canola crop, the official said.
However, the fact that China is moving forward with its plant approval process as it said it would represents progress, said an Agriculture Canada official.
In an e-mail, canola council president JoAnne Buth said Chinese quarantine authority AQSIQ had approved four plants in Jiangsu province and one in Shandong province to receive canola without blackleg.
Canadian officials have said China has expressed concern about blackleg contaminating its domestic crops, but they say it is more likely eager to reduce its large canola stockpiles.
