The Fresh Produce Alliance – Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Dispute Resolution Corporation and the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada -- held a webinar September 25 to explain the background of current consultations by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on fruit and vegetable grade standards. 

Background: Standards are intended to regulate the marketing of agricultural products in import, export and interprovincial trade and to provide for national standards and grades of agricultural products, for their inspection and grading. On January 15, 2019 regulations made under the CAP Act were repealed in favour of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). 

CFIA consultation questions to be considered:

• Which of the three options presented best serves the public interest and industry needs to the greatest degree?
  • What is an appropriate role for CFIA in relation to developing and maintaining fresh fruit and vegetable grade standards (within its mandate and resources)?
  • Considerations the CFIA should be aware of as it reviews options for transferring development and maintenance of fresh fruit and vegetable grades, in whole or in part, to a third party?
  • Are there any other options or considerations (e.g. other Government of Canada priorities such as sustainability, food waste/food loss, food availability, climate change) that the CFIA should take into account in modernizing the approach for developing and maintaining Canadian fresh fruit and vegetable grade standards?

The Fresh Produce Alliance favours the option whereby a third party, the Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC), would lead development and maintenance of the grade standards. This model has been successfully established by the Canadian Beef Grading Agency. In this model, the CFIA maintains oversight, enforcement and its current international (WTO) role. CFIA retains international trade obligations and responsibility for appropriate notifications and inspection services. CFIA retains domestic inspection services and it maintains minimum import requirements for all FFV that have a Canada grade established.

As a third party, DRC would expect and require ongoing CFIA/AAFC resources to manage.

Link to the backgrounder here: 

• https://inspection.canada.ca/en/about-cfia/transparency/consultations-and-engagement/canadian-fresh-fruit-and-vegetable-grade-standards

To offer feedback, link here:  online questionnaire 

For more information, contact Anne Fowlie (afowlie@fvdrc.com).

Source:  Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation September 25, 2024 

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