New European legislation on genetically modified organisms could, oddly
enough, be good news for Canada’s canola industry.
The European Union has proposed a new mandatory labelling scheme for
food and feed produced from GMOs.
European parliament wants labels on products with more than 0.5 percent
GM material. The Council of Member States thinks the tolerance level
should be set at 0.9 percent.
Canadian canola exporters couldn’t care less where the threshold level
is set because the industry doesn’t segregate GM canola from non-GM
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canola. It is impossible for the industry to meet either of the
tolerance levels.
But there is also some potential good news attached to the new
legislation. Instead of an all-out ban on GM canola, which has been in
place since 1999, Europe is moving toward a system with tolerance
levels.
That seems to imply that GM product could be imported into Europe as
long as it is labelled as such, said Dave Hickling, a vice-president
with the Canola Council of Canada. But with Europe, nothing is a
certainty.
“If they will allow imports of GE products, then that is really good.
But who knows what they’re going to do,” said Hickling.
Before the introduction of GM canola, Europe was a sometime buyer of
Canadian seed, purchasing up to half a million tonnes in some years.
But exports ground to a halt in 1996 when Canadian farmers started
growing Roundup Ready canola.
Hickling said it would be nice to regain a portion of that once
significant market, but it’s not an absolute necessity.
“We haven’t been in a situation yet where we really needed the European
market.
“Certainly we don’t need it this year. We don’t have enough to supply
existing customers.”
Canada sells most of its canola seed and oil to China, Japan, Mexico
and the United States where the crop’s GM traits have been approved.
But it would be a comfort once production levels bounce back to normal
to have another destination for Canadian product.
Conor Dobson, head of public and government affairs with Bayer
CropScience, estimates it will be mid-2004 before Europe’s parliament
and member states can agree on acceptable tolerance levels for GM
products.
“Many people think the negotiation will be somewhere between 0.5 and
0.9 percent in the end,” he said.
While the GM tolerance levels won’t have much of an impact on the
canola industry they could be critical for soybean and corn exporters
and the wheat industry if and when GM wheat is commercialized, said
Dobson.
He said some food exporters feel it will be impossible to meet either
of the two levels Europe is proposing.
Others say it may be possible but will require costly
identity-preservation systems.
The Canadian General Standards Board has a voluntary labelling scheme
that sets tolerance levels at five percent GM material.
“I think people are able to manage something like that,” said Dobson.
