One question canola growers won’t have to consider when they start planning for 2001 is the market for genetically modified varieties.
The answer, according to the people who buy and process the stuff, is that it doesn’t matter.
“As far as growers are concerned, it’s business as usual for 2001,” said Gary Bennewies of the market research firm Ipsos-Reid.
His company’s survey of grain merchants and canola processors in Western Canada last month indicated that none are planning to offer price premiums or discounts based on whether a variety is genetically modified.
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The reason is simple. There is no demand from Canada’s traditional customers for non-GM canola.
“At the end of the day, the end customer is going to drive this,” said Bennewies, president of Ipsos-Reid, formerly the Angus Reid Grou-10-P.
The only exception is a small number of customers who service small niche markets for specialty canola and the health food market.
There is no expectation in the industry that buyers in Canada’s main markets, including the domestic market, the United States, Japan, China and Mexico, will switch to non-GM canola any time soon.
If customers were willing to pay premiums, that would work its way back through the system and the industry would set up a system to segregate non-GM canola and pay farmers accordingly.
“But because that isn’t happening, there’s no incentive for the industry to look at it,” said Bennewies.
There will be no premiums for non-GM canola and no discounts for GM varieties.
Most companies say they’re willing to sign forward contracts for delivery next fall without regard to the crop’s GM status.
His company talked to all the major grain companies and oilseed processors in Western Canada in the latter part of October, and the message was clear: “There is just not a willingness to pay (a premium) for non-biotech canola.”
Dale Adolphe, president of the Canola Council of Canada, agreed there is no demand from Canada’s traditional customers for non-GM canola. Even if there was such a market, it would be almost impossible for Canada to tap into it, given the tight tolerances imposed by buyers of such products in Europe.
The head of the canola council also thinks it will become less of an issue as time goes by.
“I’m optimistic that the world is going to move down the road in understanding the science and ultimately accepting the science,” Adolphe said.
Bennewies said the GM issue seems to have quieted down in the last year or so.
“Last year there seemed to be more angst about what’s going on and what to do,” he said.
“This year the market seems to have sorted itself out.”
