Print This PageStorage, handling and marketing of Roundup Ready canola
Farmers in NSW and Victoria are embracing Roundup Ready canola, demonstrated by the four fold increase in the area planted from last year. Over 40,000ha has been planted with an expected 50,000 tonnes of canola to be harvested starting in November. This year, growers will see a big difference in the way their harvested crop will be handled.
Canola Trading Standards
The Australian Oilseeds Federation and Grain Trade Australia have put in place Canola Seed Trading Standards that accommodate market requirements in response to the introduction of GM canola. This is great news for farmers looking to grow this innovative technology as the new standards provide certainty around the process of delivering and marketing Roundup Ready canola.
The two standards are:
- CS01
- Canola, which includes all canola, conventional and herbicide tolerant canola including Roundup Ready canola, and,
- CS01-A
- non-GM Canola, same quality and trade parameters as Canola with the additional requirement for an adventitious presence of OGTR approved events at 0.9% or below.
Growers who grow Roundup Ready canola will market their crop as CS01 while those growing non GM have the choice to either market their crop as CS01 or CS01-A.
Receival sites
A network of receival sites operated by ABA, Cargill, GrainCorp and Riverland Oilseeds will be available to Roundup Ready growers for the 2009 harvest. These bulk handlers are currently reviewing their receival plans, as they do for all commodity grades at this time of year and will soon announce locations. We anticipate a significant increase in the number of sites receiving Roundup Ready canola from the limited commercial release year in 2008.
Growers will be required to specify whether the canola is either CS01 or CS01-A when they deliver grain to bulk handlers and sell their grain to buyers. Even though canola delivered under the default CS01 standard may be comingled by the bulk handler, growers will be required to declare the Roundup Ready status and variety name upon delivery of each load.
Testing
Simple, easy to use test kits are available to detect the presence of Roundup Ready canola. These kits contain strip tests that identify the CP4 EPSPS protein found in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready canola. Grain handlers will use these strips to segregate canola by testing deliveries into receival sites
End Point Royalty (EPR) collection
As part of the National EPR Framework, members of breeding organisations, seed companies, GRDC and Monsanto are developing a process to make the system of collecting EPRs simpler for both farmers and grain traders. We anticipate that the majority of traders marketing canola will participate in the standard industry agreement and become authorised traders in Roundup Ready canola.
