Canadian flax is starting to move to Europe more consistently under a revised arrangement for dealing with the possibility of Triffid contamination.
“We have a new (export) protocol in place that is allowing shipments to go,” said Terry James, flax trader with Richardson International.
The original protocol was ratified on Oct. 29, 2009, in an effort to restore trade with Europe after trace amounts of CDC Triffid turned up in shipments and food products.
Some flax moved to Europe after the protocol was put in place but shippers soon found it unworkable due to the risks involved.
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On March 26, 2010, the two trading partners revised the protocol.
Under the old arrangement, the Canadian Grain Commission would take a final sample as the vessels were being loaded with flax and would analyze it while the ship was en route.
Any positive result would force shippers to reroute their vessels to a market that would accept a Triffid contaminated shipment.
“Under the old protocol we would not be shipping. The risks were too high,” said James.
With the new protocol, samples are taken before being loaded into sealed bins at export terminals in Thunder Bay. Those samples are analyzed by an ISO certified lab and the results are received before loading the vessel.
“Everyone is real comfortable that grain that’s going across the seas has already been tested negative by an ISO certified laboratory,” said Randy Dennis, Canada’s chief grain inspector.
“From the exporter’s perspective, I think they find it far more reassuring,” said Dennis.
The most recent Statistics Canada results for May show Canadian exporters shipped 61,000 tonnes of flax to Europe, the highest monthly total since the Triffid crisis surfaced.
Europe has now regained its status as Canada’s top flax customer. Year-to- date sales to that destination are 242,000 tonnes. China is the second largest buyer at 191,042 tonnes.
Shipping to Europe is more costly and cumbersome than it used to be and the new protocol hasn’t resolved all the flax sector’s woes.
“The food part of the European market is gone,” said James.
“Nobody will put product from Canada on the shelf when Greenpeace can get hold of it and test it.”
Prior to the Triffid incident, Europe typically purchased three-quarters of Canada’s annual flax exports. Twenty percent of those sales went to the food market with the remainder crushed into oil and used in industrial products like linoleum.
While sales of Canadian flax to Europe are strong, they are down about 34 percent from the same time in the 2008-09 crop year.
James said the resumption of more regular trade with Europe comes at an opportune time since a wet spring in Western Canada has driven flax prices past their pre-Triffid levels, chasing China out of the market.
