Allen Kuhlmann remembers when the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission got the call that Triffid had been found in a Canadian shipment.
“We didn’t believe it,” said the former chair of the commission.
“As far as we felt, there was no Triffid.”
Kuhlmann and the rest of the industry were convinced the European labs must have detected Roundup Ready canola or some other type of genetically modified crop because Triffid was never commercialized in Canada.
Reality set in when the Canadian Grain Commission confirmed that Triffid was indeed in the supply chain.
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“Your response is, ‘My God, what’s going to happen to the industry and what’s going to happen to me as a grower?’” said Kuhlmann, who farms near Rouleau, Sask.
What happened was that flax prices went in the toilet, falling as low as $6 per bushel before being revived by a trade protocol negotiated with the European Union and sudden interest from Chinese buyers.
For Kuhlmann, it was his first direct exposure to a new non-tariff trade barrier called low level presence, where trace amounts of a GM crop that has received regulatory approval in an exporting country but not in an importing country can restrict or shut down trade.
It is an issue that has frustrated importers and exporters around the world who find the zero tolerance approach for unapproved GM traits employed by most countries intolerable.
Exporters say zero tolerance has created unacceptable risks for grain shippers who have seen entire cargoes rejected for containing dust from an unapproved GM variety.
Importers say it drives up costs and threatens the supply of grain they need to feed their people and their livestock in an era when food security and food price inflation are hot topics.
Back on the farm it has created a headache for growers like Kuhlmann who is forced to test his flax for the presence of Triffid and to search out new markets for the crop he produces.
“It’s a terrific annoyance,” he said.
“I delivered loads of flax last week into Moose Jaw and I had four pieces of paper I had to sign before I could do it.”
Flax isn’t the only crop that has been victimized by the global intolerance for unapproved GM traits. There have been cases involving U.S. corn, soybeans and other crops.
“We’ve got to get a low level presence acceptance throughout the world or we’re going to have more of these issues,” said Kuhlmann.
Grain industry executives and government officials from around the world met in Vancouver recently to discuss the issue and to help find a path forward from what has become one of the biggest obstacles to agricultural trade.
In the meantime, Kuhlmann and other flax growers are left to grapple with a problem that has decimated the industry. Canadian flax now accounts for 20 percent of Europe’s imports, down from 80 percent in pre-Triffid times.
“The industry has taken a huge hit,” said Kuhlmann.
