Canadian farmers looking to buy the U.S. generic glyphosate product ClearOut 41 Plus will no longer need federal government permits to do so, Farmers of North America (FNA) reported Monday.
Albaugh, Inc., an Iowa-based maker and distributor of ag chemicals, took over the Canadian registration of the product and has agreed to supply it to FNA, the group said.
FNA acts as a facilitating agency to help import lower-cost products from other countries for use by Canadian farmers. The agreement between FNA and Albaugh means FNA can sell the product directly to farmers without going through the permit application process required by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).
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“Instead of thousands of farmers being run through the government’s red tape, farmers will be able to buy direct from FNA just like they would any other retailer,” said FNA vice-president Glenn Caleval in a release Monday.
Caleval said the registration of ClearOut helps prove the validity of the Own-Use Import (OUI) program, under which ClearOut had been imported for Canadian farmers. OUI allowed a
strong foreign competitor to enter the Canadian market, find a market niche and as a result come
forward with a full-fledged Canadian registration, he said.
“Contrary to the claims of its opponents the OUI program is a platform for increasing Canadian
registrations and improving the market,” Caleval said.
FNA said it will soon conduct its “final efforts” to save the OUI program, partnering with “responsible farm organizations” to help get
politicians to honour commitments made to the program.
Caleval described “responsible farm organizations” as “those that did not sell their own members a bill of goods to get rid of OUI,” which was replaced by the Grower-Requested Own Use (GROU) program.
However, if farmers and farmer groups wish to “abandon efforts to get
access to farm chemicals through OUI,” FNA will not proceed alone, the group said.
“We have fertilizer to deal with, diesel to deal with, animal health needs to deal with,” Caleval said, referring to other products FNA handles for its members.
“If farmers
decide that farm chemicals do not need to be dealt with, I’m certainly not going to be in a position of
having federal politicians telling me that FNA is acting alone or that the farm organizations support
the change of policy by the government.”
