(Resource News International) –– Members of the Canadian Special Crops Association met with Mexican food inspection officials in Mexico City recently in an effort to alert them of the Canadian industry’s perspective on the presence of quarantine weed seeds in canaryseed shipments.
CSCA’s Carl Potts traveled to Mexico to take part in the talks, held Sept. 22 between association members and officials with Senasica, the Mexican ag department’s national service for food health, quality and safety.
There was some progress made, but the two sides still have some distance to go, he said.
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“There are still some trouble spots, including Mexico’s insistence that we certify shipments (as) being totally free of quarantine weed seeds, and that’s not possible from a Canadian point of view,” Potts said.
A zero tolerance on quarantine weed seeds is normal, he said, but the CSCA is concerned about Mexico’s strict holding and testing upon arrival of the product, which has been negatively impacting trade since June.
“One of the provisions is that once shipments have arrived in Mexico and (been) found to contain quarantine weed seeds, the product could be forwarded for further cleaning, and at that point move on to the final destination,” he said.
That period came to an end Sept. 19, he said, and believed it had been discontinued.
The process added an extra cost of C$8,000 to $14,000 per rail car for producers, he said.
No one from the CSCA is certain as to why Mexico instituted the weed seed quarantine, he said, but there are a couple of ideas out there.
“One thought is that wild buckwheat has been established in some fields in Mexico, and one hypothesis is that was a result of canaryseed that had been planted in those fields,” Potts said. There has been no evidence toward proving that, he said.
As for when the dispute gets resolved, no timeline has been established.
“At this point we have no additional meetings scheduled. We’re hopeful that the meeting with Senasica and the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) will be able to get the talks going again,” Potts said.
