A lack of insurance could cost some farmers big, with every shipment to Europe a gamble, due to an EU zero tolerance policy for unapproved GM seeds.
“Right now, we cannot get exporters insurance,” said Paul Gregory, a forage seed producer from Fisher Branch, Manitoba.
“If this GM seed is found too late in the system, we could be looking at a multi-million dollar lawsuit against our farm and against our business. There’s risk for the grower, the shipper and the processor. It’s something that we hope is clarified.”
The clarification Gregory hopes for is likely to come from the European Union’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which is set to affect the large Canadian export crops of wheat and canola.
However, smaller crops, already serving niche markets in Europe, may well feel the greatest impact from CETA.
Specifically, CETA is likely to address the kind of situation that arose in 2009 when after trace amounts of an unapproved genetically modified variety appeared in shipments of Canadian flax to Europe. Canadian flax exporters faced closed EU markets. Even now Canadian flax is only bought by the EU for livestock feed, biodiesel and industrial uses. The effects of this event linger on this side of the ocean, where many flax growers switched to other crops.
