KELOWNA, B.C. – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is looking to reduce the time and money it spends on field inspections for certified seed crops.
That worries seed growers, who say alternative inspection methods could mean higher costs and fewer inspectors to do the work.
Gerald Girodat, a seed grower from Shaunavon, Sask., said growers are bracing for higher fees. They pay about 75 cents per acre for inspections on fields of certified seed. Fees are higher for plot inspections on higher generations of seed.
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“The CFIA is always telling us that they’re subsidizing our inspection costs,” said Girodat, the president of the CSGA.
“They’re telling us that it’s not complete cost recovery at 75 cents an acre so I would think that (higher fees) is almost a certainty.”
Michael Scheffel, a national manager in the CFIA’s field crops division, told seed growers and industry officials at the Canadian Seed Trade Association’s annual meeting in Kelowna July 6-10 that the agency will review its field inspection services and hopes to identify alternative inspection methods that could be implemented as early as 2011.
An expansion of private inspections by independent, third party inspectors is being considered.
Another option is self-inspection of certified seed crops by authorized employees of seed production companies or by seed producers themselves.
A similar system is used for corn seed production in Ontario.
