Alberta, Canada
March 2020
Source: The Grain Exchange - March 2020
by Lauren Comin, Director of Research, Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions
"The five wheat and barley commissions are not a party to, nor supportive of the pilot SVUA program.”
On February 25, 2020, at the Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) meetings in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the seed industry announced their intended seed royalty pilot. The pilot imposes a trailing royalty collection mechanism on farm-saved seed of selected crop varieties through a contract agreement which has been labelled the “SVUA” or Seed Variety Use Agreement.
The following day, the prairie wheat and barley commissions, including the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, issued a news release to express our significant concerns about the SVUA pilot and its future impact on western Canadian wheat and barley producers.
The trailing royalty collection mechanism was one of two models that was put forward by the Grains Round Table (GRT) for consultation by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in the fall of 2018. The intent of the consultations was to work towards a model which was acceptable to, and would benefit the majority of the value chain, including farmers.
The Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions were heavily engaged in the consultations, which stalled in the fall of 2019 prior to the federal election. Producers have also been waiting for over two years on a muchanticipated economic analysis to illustrate the extent of value brought to farmers and other members of the value chain. It was anticipated that the consultation process would resume in the early spring of this year.
The five prairie wheat and barley commissions are not a party to, nor supportive of the pilot SVUA program. The pilot is separate from the federal government’s consultation process and signals the seed industry’s commitment to the SVUA model despite the federal consultation. Further, the SVUAs are being implemented via contract law and not a regulatory change, resulting in significant concerns from the commissions about the government’s commitment to the consultation process.
“The Alberta Wheat Commission believes that any trailing royalty system on varieties developed through the public breeding programs of AAFC and the western universities must take into account the fact that farmers have already made a substantial investment in the development of those varieties,” said Todd Hames, Alberta Wheat Commission chair.
“It is critical that the government complete their consultations with grain producers and put a transparent and accountable process in place to demonstrate that the extra money producers are paying is advancing varietal development,” said Dave Bishop, Alberta Barley chair.
Through various agreements with AAFC and the universities, the five commissions are major investors in variety development and will invest upwards of $50 million over the next fiveyear period in public breeding programs. The commissions emphasize that it is necessary for AAFC to provide assurances that all royalties collected through an SVUA on AAFC publicly bred varieties will be returned to AAFC’s wheat variety breeding program in an open and transparent way to supplement the funding currently provided by producers and the federal government.
At the pilot announcement, officials from the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) and the Canadian Plant Technology Association (CPTA) indicated that, so far, two wheat varieties developed by Limagrain Cereals Research Canada and marketed by Canterra Seeds, and one soy variety developed in North Dakota and marketed by SeCan, will test the system. It was also indicated that there is potential for other varieties to be a part of the pilot in 2020 or 2021, including varieties from public breeding programs. In addition, it was announced that a working group will be established to provide feedback on the pilot. However, the terms of reference and membership of that working group was not included in the announcement.
At the GRT meeting on March 6, 2020 in Vancouver, AAFC officials stated the federal consultation process with farmers would be terminated.
For more information on the value creation process, including the federal consultation and the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions’ involvement, please visit albertawheat.com and albertabarley.com.
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