The Canadian flax industry has reconsidered a controversial policy requiring that Canadian flax growers use certified seed for all flax crops planted this spring.
The change in position was announced by the Flax Council of Canada last week after the organization learned that samples of breeder seed from three more flax varieties – CDC Bethune, CDC Sorrel and CDC Sanctuary – have tested positive for CDC Triffid at trace levels below 100 parts per million.
CDC Triffid, the genetically modified flax variety that has disrupted Canada’s flax trade to the European Union, has now been indentified in five varieties of breeder seed from the Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon.
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Late last year, breeder seed from CDC Normandy and CDC Mons also tested positive.
“This was not a decision that was arrived at lightly,” said flax council president Barry Hall.
“At the end of the day … reluctantly, the trade has agreed that this is the best step forward.”
Industry stakeholders say the decision was necessary because of fears that supplies of uncontaminated certified flax seed would be insufficient to meet producers’ needs.
As of last week, about 125 samples of certified flax seed had been submitted for GM testing, a number considerably lower than what the industry had expected.
Of the samples submitted, roughly 20 percent tested positive for Triffid at levels deemed unacceptable.
With potential supply issues becoming more likely, flax industry leaders endorsed the use of farm-saved seed, as long as the seed is sampled according to established industry standards and tested for the presence of Triffid to a level of 0.01 percent, the same level of detection used on certified seed.
More details on sampling and testing protocols are expected soon.
Reversing the mandatory certified seed requirement represents a significant cost saving for Canada’s commercial flax growers.
Canadian producers planted 1.7 million acres of flax in 2009 and nearly two million acres in 2008.
Acreage estimates are hard to peg but Chuck Penner, a senior economist with Informa Economics, estimated last month that Canadian production would be in the neighbourhood of 1.3 million acres this spring.
Assuming a seeding rate of 0.75 bushels per acre and an average seed price of $15 per bushel, exclusive use of certified seed would have cost Canadian producers as much as $14.6 million.
In a normal production year, roughly 75 percent of the country’s flax acres are planted with farm-saved seed, according to data from the Canadian Seed Growers Association.
Hall said the flax industry still recommends that farmers use certified seed to help restore confidence among European flax buyers.
“But given that more of the certified seed that will be processed … and tested may not stand up to this close scrutiny, (the industry) will accept that farm-saved seed be utilized ….”
Allen Kuhlmann, chair of the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission, said the decision will address supply concerns.
“As long as seed that is farm-grown is subjected to the same level of testing (as certified seed), then everything should go forward and we should be able to find quantities of seed that are (sufficient).”
Kuhlmann said many flax growers in Saskatchewan had also expressed concerns over the cost of using certified seed.
Others were troubled by the fact that trace levels of contamination that were identified in breeder seed would be reproduced in subsequent generations of seed and could potentially be imported onto farms via the pedigreed seed system.
“There was no one issue that caused as many calls to our office as the issue of certified seed did,” Kuhlmann said.
Dale Adolphe, executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers Association, said some flax industry stakeholders initially felt that certified seed inventories could accommodate a moderate-sized flax crop in 2010.
However, the discovery of contamination in Bethune and Sorrel forced the industry to re-examine the situation.
Adolphe also said some pedigreed seed growers, fearing potential liabilities, were reluctant to test and sell certified flax seed this year, which shortened the availability of supplies.
“There were some concerns about going into the flax seed market because of potential liabilities and maybe that was resulting in some hesitation to submit samples,” Adolphe said.
Canada’s pedigreed seed growers produced roughly 33,000 acres of pedigreed flax seed last year.
