E-Malt.com News article: 2591

Canada, Winnipeg: Canadian grain traders who sell oats and barley to U.S. cereal and beer makers said they are worried a new chemical could jeopardize their largest and most lucrative export market, Reuters revealed on May 3. The chemical, a fungicide sold by the Canadian division of Germany's Bayer AG, has been approved by federal regulators for use with wheat, barley and oats -- but was only registered in the United States for wheat.

There's a small risk that if Canadian oats and barley growers use the chemical, called Stratego, minute traces could be detected on the grain or in finished food products owned by giants like ConAgra Foods Inc., General Mills Inc., PepsiCo unit Quaker Oats, and Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc.

Canada's sole barley exporter just found out about the issue late last week, and was very concerned, said Louise Waldman, spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board. The CWB ships an average of 550,000 tonnes of malting barley annually to the United States, worth an average of C$75 million, she said. "We may have to decide that we recommend to farmers they not use this product if they want to be able to have barley sold for export to the U.S., but we aren't at that stage yet," Waldman said.

Canadian farmers, already hurt by U.S. trade issues over cattle and wheat, are apt to avoid the problem by not using the the chemical, said Jack Shymko, president of the Prairie Oat Growers Association. "There's no use growing something if I ain't got a buyer for it," said Shymko, who farms at Ituna, Saskatchewan.


04 May, 2004