Agriculture committee  Canola acres over the last number of years haven't grown to 22 million to 23 million acres for no reason at all. It has probably consistently been the most effective cash-generating crop for western Canadian farmers. The netback per acre—one of the key ingredients as to how a far

Agriculture committee  The international trade in agricultural commodities is governed by very clear rules of engagement by both the buyer and the seller. Those are internationally recognized contracts. Quality is part of that, as are other execution terms. Issues related to cargo, freight, time, credi

Agriculture committee  I think there's opportunity. The market is constantly moving and changing, and tastes and relationships are being formed. Some relationships are being lost over the course of time. That will continue to happen with canola or any other commodity. Canola has a strong place in the

Agriculture committee  No, not that I'm aware of.

Agriculture committee  Normally, if there were an issue detected by the regulatory agency at whatever destination or point of destination was involved, that would be communicated to the customer. The customer would certainly, along with that regulatory agency or in advance of that regulatory agency, co

Agriculture committee  —and the technical data, and then conversations could expand to our own regulatory agencies that had issued certificates of validation of the quality of the cargo subsequent to that. That would be the normal process. We haven't had any of that process evident in this circumstan

Agriculture committee  The fact that we were alerted basically by our own regulatory agencies, with no communication from either the customer or the Chinese regulator, was indeed quite a surprise to us.

Agriculture committee  I can't speak for the entire industry but speaking for Richardson, I can say it's rare. I think that's the appropriate description. Our system is based on taking representative samples at loading, at the end of the loading spout as it goes onto the vessel. It's at the very last

Agriculture committee  There have been none that I can think of. As I say, China is one destination amongst many, and this has not been a problem certainly in our experience. In our understanding of the industry in general, we have not seen a problem with canola going to any other destination. We've n

Agriculture committee  No, I can't say that I can recall something specifically as it relates to canola, or rapeseed as it's called in other parts of the world, as an export commodity. I'm sure there are other circumstances with other grains and oilseed export products where these sorts of quality conc

Agriculture committee  I'll recommence about a sentence or so back. While we understand and agree that the technical discussions between regulatory subject-matter experts must be allowed to occur to either address or dispel these quality issues that have been raised, we cannot emphasize enough the imp

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the standing committee. My name is Curt Vossen, and I'm the president and CEO of Richardson International Limited, which is based in Winnipeg. Accompanying me today is Jean-Marc Ruest, who is our senior vice-president, corporat