Talk to your Agro-100 representative or Ag retailer. Fuel growth. Fight stress. Scan to discover how SoyAgro OP delivers results agro_SoyAgro_OntGrainFarmer_half_juin2025_Final.indd 1 2025-04-11 3:05 PM ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER SUSTAINABILITY 23 Deforestation Regulation is to target soybeans grown after clearing land in high-value nature ecosystems, like Brazil’s Amazon basin. The nature of international trade necessitates the bloc not to target one or more individual countries, though, meaning the legislation has to be applied broadly. Its wording is also very specific and detailed in an effort to reduce loopholes. The Regulation has created a very burdensome compliance environment for even the most compliant of export countries. The question, says Dickerson, is how exporters can provide specific GPS coordinates for where a given batch of soybean originated and that the growing area is in compliance when the soybeans in question pass through one of 500 rural elevators, one or more aggregate terminals, loaded onto vessels which may or may not offload or top up at other terminals over varying lengths of time, before reaching a European port. “This policy technically is already in law, but there’s an implementation phase-in period. The EU has already delayed it once, and they’re working to simplify it because there are so many companies that have said ‘we can’t make this work’,” Dickerson says. More generally, she adds electoral changes within the European Union have spurred a shift in focus—specifically, reassessments of environmental legislation pertaining to deforestation, biotechnology, and other areas. “I also think, with the current dynamics of global trade, the EU and the UK are going to want to align with countries like Canada, which are reliable and dependable.” FEWER BARRIERS IN UK No longer part of the EU, the UK’s sustainability legislation poses similar market access challenges—albeit somewhat less onerous. Ed Barker, head of policy and external affairs for the UK Agricultural Industries Confederation, says the UK has “not followed Europe” on a whole range of environmental sustainability legislation. “For what it’s worth, the UK has got its own proposed deforestation legislation, but it’s being delayed for quite a considerable period of time…Global trade volatility has also underlined how wise some of those initial policies were,” says Barker. In the meantime, a general shift of preference toward North American soybeans has occurred, particularly in the United Kingdom. Other differences between the UK and the EU’s environment or environment-adjacent policies might provide further opportunities for Canadian grain growers—specifically, how the UK classifies gene-edited crop varieties. “From an export point of view, there’s going to be more of an interest in what can be done in research and development. That’s something we’re getting quite excited about,” says Barker. More generally, he says factors such as costof-production challenge, a very real issue for oilseeds and other products in the United Kingdom, as well as legislation creating self-imposed limits on production—such as nitrogen reduction requirements in mainland Europe—could translate into further market opportunities for Canadian farmers. •
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