Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for the invitation. I'm pleased to be here today to share with you the Canola Council's view on how we can grow canola exports through research and innovation.
First, I'd like to describe a little bit about the Canola Council. We're a value chain organization representing the canola industry: the 43,000 Canadian canola farmers, the seed developers who develop the seed for growers to put in the ground, the processors who turn the seed that farmers produce into oil for humans and meal for livestock feed, and the exporters who send that seed for processing at its destination.
International trade and innovation are the lifeblood of our industry. As Serge mentioned, canola is a Canadian invention and is now often the single largest source of farm income for Canadian farmers, thanks to this research and innovation.
More than 90% of the canola we grow is exported to markets around the world, and we have a plan to export even more. Keep it coming is our industry's plan to increase demand for canola oil, for canola meal, and for canola seed, and to meet that demand through sustainable production and yield improvement, reaching 26 million tonnes of production by 2025.
To put this into perspective, when our industry achieves our goal, it will have added $4.5 billion in canola exports per year, and as we all aim to meet the government's target of $75 billion in agrifood exports per year, creating the conditions for export growth through research and innovation is a key part of our industry's contributing $4.5 billion to this target.
Today I wish to share three conditions that are needed to enable innovation to drive canola exports: first, create a favourable climate for private investment in seed innovation; second, maintain research partnerships between industry and government; and third, promote science-based rules internationally.
I'll speak first to the importance of a positive regulatory environment and an investment climate that encourages private sector investment and innovation.
In the canola sector, innovation in seeds is really driven by private investment. As a result, it's very important that the regulatory and investment climate for canola seed innovation support a predictable path to market. When new seed innovation such as biotech traits cannot be commercialized, the path to market is not predictable for that private investment.
Currently there are three canola seed traits, developed using biotechnology, that cannot be commercialized because they are not yet approved in China. They have been approved in Canada since 2012 and have been approved in all other major canola markets. When they are approved, these seed traits will help Canadian farmers adopt innovation and be more competitive internationally.
We were happy to see Minister MacAulay raise the importance of these approvals with his counterpart in China just two weeks ago. Industry estimates that approval of these traits alone will allow growers to produce $400 million more canola on the same amount of land. This is a step change for canola productivity. This improved productivity will come from new seed genetics as well as from the traits that are marketed in combination.
As we look forward, we also need to think about our regulatory approach to plant breeding innovation and ensure that it continues to support investment. As a member of the Canada Grains Council, we support the recommendations to the committee that they made several weeks ago.
Second, maintaining research partnerships between industry and the federal government is very important for continued innovation. These partnerships support such public research as the agriscience cluster and are key for our prosperous future together.
Through the canola agriscience cluster, federal investment has encouraged private investment and has allowed us to advance public research. The cluster has helped us maintain access to critical markets, has allowed us to preserve biodiversity, and has allowed us to discover the health properties of canola.
For example, through the research cluster the blackleg risk mitigation plan was developed. It reduced the impact of this disease on canola plants and the potential for it to be transmitted to Chinese rapeseed crops. It's a great result, because blackleg is a disease that hurts our farmers, and it's something that's also a market access challenge for our access to the Chinese market.
Our cluster research has also allowed us to keep biodiversity top of mind for our producers. Cluster research has been instrumental in updating economic thresholds for using insecticides to prevent such insects as diamondback moths from eating canola. By using insecticides only when there is economic need, our growers are now allowing beneficial insects to flourish and wild pollinators to flourish as well. We're not done yet, though.
Every year, the Canola Council brings together growers, life science companies, university researchers, and Agriculture Canada scientists at our Canola Discovery Forum to determine the research needs and opportunities that are most important for the sector. It's been a fantastic forum to coordinate and prioritize research needs, ensuring that investments are made in projects that bring the greatest returns.
We hope innovation and knowledge transfer will continue for canola in the current agriscience cluster application to the Canadian agricultural partnership. We're excited about new opportunities to use canola protein for humans, to lower greenhouse gas emissions by using nitrogen more efficiently, and to improve yield while sequestering more carbon in the plant.
This brings me to my final point.
In order to have predictable and stable trade, Canada needs to promote science-based regulation internationally. To achieve this, we need our scientists to be able to work with scientists in other countries. This means that regulatory agencies like the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency need to have both the mandate and the resources to promote science-based trade internationally. Whether it's regulations and standards around food and feed safety, crop protection products, or plant health, enabling more canola exports requires a team Canada approach that includes our scientists.
In closing, canola has grown into a Canadian success story because research and innovation have allowed us to be globally competitive. We're excited to help meet Canada's target of $75 billion in exports by 2025. Supporting a favourable investment climate will be a big part of that. Helping us to have timely approval of biotech traits, continued research partnerships, and the promotion of science-based rules internationally are all necessary to help us continue supporting a quarter million Canadian jobs that are currently supported by the canola sector.
Thank you very much.