Canadian farmers will soon have access to a cheaper form of glypho- sate.
On Feb. 14, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency ruled that a product manufactured by a U.S. firm is chemically equivalent to glyphosate products already sold in Canada.
“It was quite a Valentine’s Day for us,” said Craig Kury, vice-president of business development for Farmers of North America or FNA, the group that sponsored the equivalency application.
There is still one hurdle to overcome before producers will be able to import the herbicide. A 48-page product label submitted by FNA has to be approved by the PMRA, which Kury thinks should happen in 2005.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Once that process is complete, growers will have access to a product that retails for $4.50 per litre, which FNA chief executive office Jim Mann said is about 40 percent cheaper than the going rate for glyphosate.
Canadian farmers buy an estimated 50 million litres of the herbicide each year, so the savings could amount to millions of dollars.
“We’re now in a position to help facilitate lowering input costs for farmers in Canada,” said Kury.
Farmers of North America is a Saskatoon-based organization that buys a variety of farm inputs in bulk and distributes them to its 7,500 farm family members, most of whom reside in Western Canada.
Five years ago the company issued tenders to buy half a million litres of glyphosate but couldn’t find one distributor willing to provide a quote on the order.
The group filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau, claiming glyphosate manufacturers were guilty of collusion, but the agency ruled there was no evidence to support that claim.
So FNA decided to change tactics and exploit a seldom-used PMRA program to help farmers import an American product called ClearOut 41 Plus, manufactured by Chemical Products Technologies LLC, a privately held firm based in Cartersville, Georgia.
Before it could do that it had to prove the product, which has been marketed in the United States for years, was chemically equivalent to the glyphosate used by farmers in Canada.
That turned out to be a frustrating and onerous process that was finally resolved on Valentine’s Day.
ClearOut 41 Plus is a systemic herbicide that provides broad-spectrum control of many annual and perennial weeds, wood brush and trees. In the U.S., it is registered for use on a wide variety of crops.
Groups like FNA will not be able to buy the product in bulk. It will be up to each individual farmer to apply for an own-use importation permit, which restricts them to bringing in a volume of the herbicide suitable to the amount of acres they farm.
“There is a measurement there to ensure that the amount of product that you are importing into Canada will be for your own use,” said PMRA spokesperson Edith Lachapelle.
Any farmer can apply for a permit.
Kury said FNA will assist its members to complete the application, transfer the funds to a U.S. distributor and co-ordinate the transportation logistics. Annual membership fees for the organization are $350, but that price is going up to $500 within the next 30 days.
Lachapelle said once the PMRA approves the product label, the agency will start processing the importation permits. It will attempt to meet a 30-day turnaround time, but that will depend on the volume of applications.
The program has been used only a few times in the past and never for a product as popular as glyphosate.
