Pulse growers,

Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG), Pulse Canada, and many others have worked over the past number of weeks to ensure that the issue of pulse trade with India was a top priority for Prime Minister Trudeau’s trip to India this week. Lee Moats, from Riceton, SK, Chair of Pulse Canada's Board of Directors and SPG Board member, along with PulseCanada CEO Gordon Bacon, were in India in February focused on Canada’s top pulse priorities. Specifically, the Canadian pulse industry was asking that Canada press for predictability and transparency in India’s trade policies relating to pulses, to ensure pulses already enroute be exempt from policy changes, and that Canada not be required to fumigate pulse shipments, as there is no science-based risk associated with Canadian pulse shipments.

We are pleased that Prime Ministers Trudeau and Modi have agreed to work closely together to finalize an arrangement within 2018, to enable the export of Canadian pulses to India free from pests of quarantine importance, with mutually acceptable technological protocols. The Prime Ministers also agreed to the importance of transparency and predictability of market access conditions.

More work in the remainder of 2018 is needed, to ensure that the vision agreed by the Prime Ministers today, results in the outcomes that Saskatchewan pulse producers need to see. While today’s agreement does not resolve the market access challenges in our largest market for pulses, it sets a clear end goal, with timelines, for government officials and industry in India and Canada to address the fumigation requirements.