A Winnipeg seed company is concerned by reports that Alsen, a wheat
variety with improved resistance to fusarium, is being illegally
imported into Manitoba.
Canterra Seeds holds the exclusive rights to market Alsen in Canada.
The variety has a one-year interim registration from the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency but it needs to go through two years of co-op trials
before it can gain full registration and be made commercially available
to farmers in Western Canada.
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Margaret Coyle of Canterra Seeds said last week there are rumours that
Alsen is being brought into Manitoba by farmers for commercial crop
production.
If that is happening, she said, it could make it harder to get Alsen’s
interim registration extended next year and it could jeopardize the
hope of eventually gaining full registration for the variety in Western
Canada.
An illegal influx of the grain could raise concerns that the variety
cannot be kept out of Western Canada’s grain trade before it gains full
registration, Coyle said.
The Alsen variety was developed by North Dakota State University and is
already grown commercially in the United States.
In Manitoba, growers are keen for new wheat varieties with improved
resistance to fusarium, a fungal disease that has had devastating
consequences.
There are Canadian regulations that allow producers to import American
seed for planting on their farms and restrict the grain’s use. However,
in the case of Alsen, only Canterra can import and market the variety
in Canada, Coyle said. That was part of the agreement when the company
bought the marketing rights from the North Dakota university.
The company is working with the university to stop seed companies south
of the border from selling Alsen to farmers in Western Canada.
It appears the seed has only been taken into Manitoba, although
fusarium has also threatened growers in eastern Saskatchewan.
The Canadian Grain Commission and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
both said last week that the issue is out of their hands.
It will be up to Canterra to use plant breeders’ protection if it wants
to stop others from importing Alsen into Canada, said Grant Watson, a
senior adviser with the inspection agency’s seed section in Ottawa.
“We have no role to play in this at all,” he said.
Based on information presented to the Prairie Registration Recommending
Committee for Grain, it appears Alsen would have the qualities needed
to fit within Western Canada’s red spring wheat classes, said Norm
Woodbeck, acting chief inspector for the grain commission.
He doesn’t anticipate a large problem if some of the grain is grown in
Manitoba fields this year.
He said it would be difficult for the grain commission to guard against
imports of the seed from the U.S.
“Trying to police the border is virtually impossible.”
