Canada has it. The European Union needs it.
That is a perfect situation to make canola sales, says Joanne Buth of the Canola Council of Canada.
“We’re trying to target next spring, because that’s when the EU’s going to run out of their own rapeseed for crushing and the Australian crop that they bring in. They’re going to be looking for seed and not really having any options,” said Buth.
But market needs may not mean much unless Canadian canola seed meets Europe’s rules on importing genetically modified seed. The approval is tantalizingly close but far from a sure thing.
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“It’s really difficult to tell,” said Buth.
The EU Commission, the executive authority of the 25-country organization, is expected to soon rule on whether to approve the genetic modifications of InVigor canola, after the member states couldn’t come to a clear conclusion whether to approve or deny it.
“We expect to hear something by the end of November,” said Buth.
If the genetic transformations found in InVigor crops are approved, there will be little to hold back Canadian canola seed. But it takes only a small complication to keep the market closed, and that complication now is small amounts of a non-commercially grown GM canola still found in Western Canada, but not approved in the EU.
If the EU follows a zero tolerance approach with that unapproved canola seed, it could keep the EU market closed to all Canadian canola seed.
Canadian canola oil for human consumption and animal feed has already been approved for EU import, so long as importers can prove that no oil from non-approved varieties is involved.
“If there was a traceability system here showing that it wasn’t coming into a crushing plant here, the oil can go,” said Buth.
Small amounts of canola oil are going to Europe under those conditions.
But the big prize for Canada would be approval for canola seed, because there is huge demand building in Europe. The European biodiesel industry chews through so much EU-grown canola that EU food producers must import tropical oils because they can’t bring in Canadian canola.
This is ironic, Buth said. Canadian canola is being kept out of Europe because of alleged health concerns about GMOs, but the imported tropical oils like palm oil are definitely unhealthy.
“In Europe, they’re using all of their rapeseed for biodiesel and they’re starting to import palm for human use, which is very odd,” said Buth.
Palm oil is high in saturated fat, which is linked to cardiovascular diseases.
Politics still swirl around the GM issue. Last week Greenpeace released a report denouncing the World Trade Organization’s rationale for ordering the EU to stop arbitrarily preventing approvals of GM products. The environmental organization has argued that the WTO shouldn’t be able to prevent organizations like the EU or its member states from imposing their own controls on GM products.
“The WTO is clearly unqualified to deal with the complex scientific and environmental issues, and yet, when there is a conflict between trade and environmental considerations, it is the WTO that gets to decide which rules rule,” said Daniel Mittler, Greenpeace’s trade policy adviser.
“It’s like putting the fox in charge of the chickens.”
