Even as farmers plan to seed more canola this year, sanitary issues continue to plague the canola and canola meal market.
Last week, China found the fungus that causes blackleg in a shipload of Canadian canola, according to Bloomberg news service.
The cargo of 54,300 tonnes of canola from Vancouver was found to have leptosphaeria maculans, the state-owned China National Grain and Oils Information Centre said in an e-mailed report.
Bloomberg said the importer was ordered to unload the cargo in a non-producing area to avoid contact with local rapeseed. The importer has leased a processing plant from Chinatex to process the cargo, it added.
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Last fall when it imposed the restrictions on blackleg, China left a small opening, allowing two crushers to accept non-compliant blackleg-positive cargoes, but for the 2010 crop there is no indication that will continue.
To the end of February, the latest figures available, Canada shipped 1.37 million tonnes of canola to China.
Of that amount, more than one million tonnes were booked before the restrictions were imposed.
Some people believe China’s blackleg concerns are a tool to protect Chinese farmers who produced a large rapeseed crop last year. Once the domestic crop is used up, they think China will accept Canadian canola again.
But the Chinese have not provided a signal that the assessment is true. A market that took 2.8 million tonnes in 2008-09 and will take about 1.5 million this year is highly uncertain for 2010-11.
There are also continuing problems shipping canola meal to the United States.
Late last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put the ADM Agri-Industries crushing plant at Lloydminster, Alta., on its import alert list after detecting salmonella in a shipment of canola meal.
Six major Canadian crushing plants are now on the list, severely limiting meal exports to the U.S.
To the end of January, shipments totalled 548,631 tonnes, down from 930,068 at the same point last year.
Increased exports to Mexico and Asia have partly made up the deficit, but because of the greater shipping distance, they are less profitable.
Ken Stone, Canadian Oilseed Processors Association chair, said last month that crushers and the Canadian government are working on a document they hope will help crushers regain the confidence of the FDA.
Stone told Reuters the document would contain best management practices for canola crushers in line with new feed safety regulations that the FDA is developing.
He hoped the document would create industry-wide practices on minimizing salmonella but there was no signal from the Americans whether it would smooth over the problem.
