Despite a small concession, Canada remains at odds with its largest pulse customer over a trade issue that could have dire consequences for the industry.
Earlier this month, government and industry officials flew to Mumbai, India, to discuss with their counterparts a new requirement to fumigate Canadian shipments for three pests.
“We achieved one of our objectives,” said Pulse Canada chief executive officer Gordon Bacon.
Indian authorities agreed that shipments up to and including March 31 would not be subject to the new phytosanitary requirements set out in the Indian Plant Quarantine Order 2003, implemented on Jan. 1.
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That means 60 containers of Canadian pulses en route to India when the new regulations were implemented will now be accepted.
Bacon said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency provided India with an assurance that samples from those containers had been thoroughly inspected for the bugs.
“Based on their analysis, there was no incidents of those pests being found.”
India accepted the CFIA’s certificates as proof that the cargo was free of the critters. That news was tainted by the revelation that India will refuse to accept similar assurances after April 1.
Future pea shipments must be fumigated for stem and bulb nematodes, pea cyst nematodes and bruchides or pea weevils. Lentil shipments must be fumigated for stem and bulb nematodes. There are no named pests for chickpeas but there is still a fumigation requirement for that crop.
“It’s unprecedented and completely unnecessary,” said Bacon.
Canada’s phytosanitary certificates would appease any other nation, but India wants more, he said.
“They’re asking for this double failsafe system that is not demanded by any other country in the world.”
None of the pests are a problem in the Prairies, where most of Canada’s pulse crops are grown, and they have never been identified as a trade issue by any of Canada’s customers.
“They want fumigation to occur for pests that aren’t even there,” said Bacon.
Fumigation can occur only when grain is warmer than 5 C, which eliminates pulse shipments to India during the fall and winter.
In the spring and summer it will add $4-$6 per tonne to containerized product and between 50 cents and $1 per tonne for bulk shipments. There are also potential demurrage costs for bulk product because it has to be held at anchor for one day after fumigation to check for leaks.
Bacon didn’t have data for 2003, but in 2001 and 2002 Canada exported 25 percent of its pulses to India, accounting for about 20 percent of total pulse export revenues. It’s a high volume, low priced market, so absorbing the extra costs is a tough pill to swallow.
“We’re talking about a market that is very price competitive,” said Bacon.
Officials from the CFIA and Agriculture Canada have put the fumigation issue on a list of concerns to be discussed this week in Geneva, Switzerland, at a meeting of the World Trade Organization’s committee on sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
Bacon is heading to Ottawa shortly after the WTO meeting to follow up on those talks and to urge bureaucrats, members of Parliament and cabinet ministers to do anything in their power to eliminate the threat of losing a $100 million market for pulses.
