Efforts to restore Canadian flax exports to Europe using a strict export testing protocol have hit a snag.
Barry Hall, president of the Flax Council of Canada, said last week that a testing protocol established last October by Canadian and European Union authorities is proving too onerous for Canadian exporters and shipping companies.
Under the EU protocol, all Canadian flax destined for Europe must be tested for evidence of genetic modification at three stages: upon delivery to country elevators, again as flax shipments are loaded onto rail cars, and a third time as rail car contents are transferred onto ocean-bound vessels.
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But according to Hall, a combination of factors including logistical pressures, tight shipping schedules, costly demurrage charges and delays in acquiring test results have, in many cases, rendered the protocol unworkable.
In addition, extremely sensitive testing systems that identify the presence of genetically modified material at a level of 0.01 percent are producing variable test results at different stages of delivery.
According to Hall, about 25 percent of the samples taken from rail cars test positive, even though the same flax tested negative when it was delivered to the elevator.
In addition, some flax that tests negative on rail cars tests positive after it is loaded onto ships, Hall said.
When ships are being loaded, samples are collected by the Canadian Grain Commission and sent to an accredited lab for a final analysis.
However, those lab results can take several days and neither shippers nor port authorities at Thunder Bay, Ont., can wait that long.
As a result, vessels loaded with Canadian flax are leaving Canadian ports before test results are received.
“The ramifications of holding that vessel until the results of the analysis have come in (are unacceptable),” said Hall. “It could be four or five or six days (before results are available) and that vessel could run easily at $20,000 a day on demurrage.
“And also keep in mind that Thunder Bay is designed to ship. If you learned that there was a (GM) positive hold on board, you could not discharge (that part of the load). That vessel is sailing.”
According to Hall, about 15 percent of the new crop flax that has arrived in the Belgian port of Ghent since the protocol was adopted has tested positive for GM material.
That flax is normally held in quarantine until arrangements are made for disposal or sale to other markets.
Hall said the testing protocols are placing too great a risk on Canadian grain handling companies, flax exporters and shipping companies.
The only way to restore normalcy to the Canadian flax trade is to convince European authorities to increase their tolerance levels, most likely around 0.1 percent, he added.
Right now, the European Union has a zero percent tolerance for unapproved GM events.
Hall said logistical issues related to the EU protocol became apparent when the first cargo of Canadian flax arrived in Ghent shortly after the agreement was reached.
“I can tell you that the first shipment that went out – about 25,000 tonnes – there were eight separations on board and two of the major ones tested positive,” Hall said.
“All that flax is still sitting in quarantine in Ghent. That’s a tremendous problem for the shipper.”
Hall also said that European importers expressed disbelief when they learned that GM positive flax is still arriving in Europe.
