Ottawa funds fruit plant testing wait time reduction project
Posted August 15, 2017 5:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Federal Government is trying to make it faster for fruit growers to quickly export and import plants while making sure crops are disease and virus free.
Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay announced the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) would partner with Genome British Columbia on two projects worth $500,000 over four years to reduce the quarantine testing time.
The first project would seek to shorten the testing periods of seeds, cuttings and bulbs imported into the country to make sure they are virus and disease free, while the second will streamline the testing of strawberry plants.
“What once took three years will be shorten to a year or under,” MacAulay said. “This will greatly help boost the competitiveness and responsiveness of the $240 million fruit tree industry.”
The project is part of the federal government’s goal to nearly triple Canada’s agricultural exports to $75 billion by 2025, according to MacAulay, and is part of the $30 million innovation agenda set out in the 2016 federal budget.
Funding is provided through a partnership between CFIA, Genome BC, Summerland Varieties Corporation, Phyto Diagnostics, the BC Cherry Association, and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre.
