Product's discontinuation threatens Ontario's ginseng industry

Thursday, May 12, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario ginseng growers will soon be without a soil fumigant because the manufacturer is withdrawing the product they’re using at the end of this year.

Without the fumigant Telone or some alternative, the future of ginseng growing in Ontario with a crop valued at $100 million annually could be threatened, say grower representatives. There isn’t a replacement product available for growers in Canada.

Marvin Karges, Ontario Ginseng Growers Association executive director, says ginseng growers use the product to kill nematodes and other soil-borne diseases and viruses that could affect the crop’s health.

Growers of other crops also use the product. But Telone is more predominately used by ginseng growers because ginseng is a perennial crop, he says. Growers need a good, healthy soil bed for their plants.

Karges says the product’s registration is expiring by the end of this year. That means it won’t be registered for use in Canada after this year.

Many growers knowing there likely won’t be an alternative in place by the spring will be doing their fumigation this fall but that isn’t the optimal time to be doing it, he says. Normally growers fumigate in spring when they’re getting ready for planting.

He notes the Pest Management Regulatory Agency has asked the manufacturer, Dow, for additional data to meet new standards. The manufacturer decided based on the small Canadian market that it was too much work to supply the extra data and has opted to discontinue the product’s registration here, Karges says.

The association has asked the agency to reconsider its position or provide a replacement product for Ontario’s ginseng growers. The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has also asked the agency to reconsider so the manufacturer can reinstate the product.

Karges says the Ontario industry is being hung out dry. Telone will still be available in the Untied States “and it puts us at a competitive disadvantage.”

The federal government gives the industry money to promote Ontario ginseng as the best quality in the world. But on the other hand “they’re not giving us the tools that we need to ensure that we can effectively market our product as the best in the world,” Karges explains.

Without a fumigant growers would have to plant on land that hasn’t been fumigated and they’ll probably end up with a poorer quality crop and lower yields, he says. BF