Reaction continues to trickle in following Tuesday's announcement of China implementing a 75.8 per cent tariff on Canadian canola seed imports, effective Thursday.
The latest levy is in addition to 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian canola oil, canola meal, and peas and a 25 per cent tariff on pork and seafood that China announced in March.
Farm groups say the news comes at the worst possible time as harvest will begin in earnest in a few weeks.
" A lot of producers would be relying on that harvest coming off and being able to sell some of their product fairly quickly to pay some of the bills that have accumulated since seeding," said Bill Prybylski, President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS). "All our input costs need to get paid, and the only way producers can do that is by selling their products. Having the tariffs coming on at this time certainly is probably the worst time of year possible."
Dale Leftwich, Policy Manager with SaskOilseeds, added grain marketing plans are also affected by the new tariff.
"If (farmers) were going to sell the canola and pay some bills, and the elevator companies can't take it in because they can't really ship it to China, all of a sudden they have to have additional storage. They may have to actually find another way to store other crops. They may have to sell other crops like oats, lentils, or peas that they weren't intending to sell until later in the year. So it changes everything in terms of how they're going to pay their bills, what other crops they are going to have to sell, and how they're going to store this." said Leftwich.
China purchased "an awful lot" of canola seed over the last year, Leftwich said, and could turn to countries like Australia to fill the void in the short-term or turn to nations where Canadian canola is exported to, such as Dubai, as a work around.
For Leftwich, the bottom line is China needs canola for their crush facilities and "there isn't a lot of canola growing areas around the world to turn to."
"So it's in the interests of the Chinese economy to get this settled quickly as well." he added.
Prybylski and Leftwich say their respective groups are lobbying the federal government to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible.
"We’re hoping to collaborate with all the other farm organizations in the province to work together to just show how much of an impact this is going to have and come up with a unified message," said Prybylski.
