MarketsFarm — As tensions between Canada and India remain very high, the future direction for Canadian lentils continued to be uncertain.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Marcos Mosnaim of Export Packers said as to what could happen, adding “Canada has to be careful. I don’t know what India will do.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Sept. 18 there is credible evidence collected by Canadian intelligence services pointing to the India government allegedly having a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
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Killed outside of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and also a Sikh separatist in support of a Khalistani state independent from India.
The Indian government, which in 2020 had deemed Nijjar to be a terrorist, stopped issuing visas in Canada soon after Trudeau’s statement last week. According to members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, however, Indian diplomats did not deny Trudeau’s claim when speaking privately about it.
By the end of July, the Canadian Grain Commission and Statistics Canada recorded exports of lentils to India for 2022-23 were 661,904 tonnes by bulk vessel and by container. That made India the largest of Canada’s lentil customers.
Mosnaim was attending the Pulse and Special Crops Convention, which runs Tuesday to Thursday in Calgary and is organized by the Canadian Pulse and Special Crops Trade Association, with buyers from India attending.
Traders might be able to suggest the fate of Canada’s lentil exports to India in the coming days, he said.
The Reuters news service on Tuesday quoted an unnamed senior Indian government official as saying India has no plans to restrict imports and Delhi has not instructed importers to refrain from purchases.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
