American authorities have refused a shipment of Canadian beans containing trace amounts of a pesticide unregistered in the United States.
The move upset Canadian pulse industry officials, who claim there is no justification for what they deem to be a trade action.
“You have to call a spade a spade. This is not a health and safety issue. It’s a border-blocking technique,” said Mark Goodwin, pest management co-ordinator with Pulse Canada.
About nine months ago the industry caught wind that American bean growers were actively looking for a technical barrier that would prevent Canadian beans from entering their marketplace.
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They found it in the form of a fungicide called Ronalin, a product registered for use on beans in Canada but not in the United States.
Goodwin claims American bean growers pressured the U.S. Food and Drug Administration into aggressively testing shipments for trace amounts of that product.
“It’s a hunt and find mission as opposed to a consumer heath issue,” he said.
A spokesperson for the American bean industry said that is an unfounded Canadian conspiracy theory.
“This wasn’t something that was initiated by the U.S. dry bean industry. It was the Food and Drug Administration doing random sampling,” said Randy Duckworth, executive director of the U.S. National Dry Bean Council.
“We didn’t have anything to do with this happening.”
The U.S. is Canada’s largest dry bean customer, accounting for one-third of last year’s sales, according to Statistics Canada.
Some American growers feel that imported Canadian product is displacing their beans at local processing facilities.
Goodwin said Canadian growers produce highly sought after, good quality beans and that’s why their product has become a target.
Earlier this year the Americans “hit pay dirt” with a shipment of beans from southern Alberta that contained 0.021 parts per million of vinclozolin, the active ingredient in the BASF fungicide Ronalin.
“It’s disappointing to see regulatory agencies being used as a weapon,” said Goodwin.
He wouldn’t divulge who the exporter was, but FDA documents show that vinclozolin was found in a Jan. 16, shipment of pink beans from Agricore United in Bow Island, Alta. One month later the Ronalin residue was discovered in a shipment of pinto beans from the same facility.
The amount of residue detected in the bean shipments is 1/50 of the acceptable limit approved by Health Canada.
Goodwin pointed out that the active ingredient in Ronalin is approved at much higher maximum residue limits on a number of U.S. crops. For instance, American authorities will allow vinclozolin residues on lettuce leaves at levels 475 times greater than what was found on the Canadian beans.
If Canada employed the same tactic, it could disrupt hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American lettuce imports because the maximum residue limit for vinclozolin on lettuce is set much lower in this country.
Goodwin said we are “entering a dangerous phase in world trade” when countries are using MRLs to replace the trade-restricting tariffs and duties that used to be in place.
Both Goodwin and Duckworth agree the incident points to the need for pesticide harmonization between the two countries. A North American Free Trade Agreement technical group is working toward that goal.
In the meantime, a spokesperson for BASF Canada said the company is encouraging Canadian growers to use an alternative fungicide it produces called Lance to combat sclerotinia in beans for the coming crop year.
Michael Schaad estimates 30 percent of Manitoba’s beans were treated with Ronalin in 2003. He said the newly registered Lance can be applied at about the same cost per acre by those producers.
“We’re confident it is going to do a great job for growers,” he said.
