Trade barriers, especially in Asia, big headache for the industry.Ottawa—Increased domestic processing of canola rather than exporting it as seed will create more jobs and value for the Canadian economy, says Jim Everson, President of the Canola Council of Canada.Processing it into oil and meal domestically has more than doubled in the last decade and now the issue to keep that trend growing, he told the Commons agriculture committee.“Our industry has a strategic plan to increase demand for canola oil, meal and seed and to meet that demand with sustainable production and yield improvement. As part of the plan, our industry has set an objective to increase the amount we process here in Canada by 40 per cent from current levels, reaching 14 million tonnes.”“It's an ambitious but achievable plan and it will contribute significantly to the government's target of $75 billion in agricultural exports through sustainable growth,” he said.To achieve it, the sector needs government help with trade barriers, especially in Asia, including unclear and misaligned food and feed safety regulations, fluctuating tariffs and misaligned regulations for crop protection products and seed innovation.“We need more regional resources to operate in a strategic and coordinated manner to maintain and build market access for Canada's agricultural products. This means more regulatory experts who can deal with the kinds of science-based issues that become technical barriers to our trade.”The government could also show the way “with a science-based environment that encourages new seed innovation here in Canada. It's a very topical debate in this period of time, particularly with the framework for new plant-breeding innovation, such as gene-editing technology, which is critical to the future of our industry and really critical to advancing sustainable agriculture as well.Everson also called for reliable railway transportation, infrastructure improvements to ensure reliable supply chains and a government-backed market for biofuels that reduce greenhouse gas emissions to support more domestic value-added processing.“We are currently processing close to 10 million tonnes—or maybe just a little bit over 10 million tonnes of canola—in Canada. Almost half of the crop is now processed in Canada. A few years ago, it would have been a lot less than that, so we have done a lot of value-added expansion in Canada. In the future, we see more demand for canola oil for human consumption internationally, but we also see a strong demand for biofuels. Potentially, it can make a real difference in Canada, as well.”“The challenge we find now is that Canada seems to be kind of falling behind other jurisdictions that have created clarity in their regulatory plan for this new plant-breeding innovation to come along. That clarity lets those big biotech companies that are investing in seed development to invest in other countries and create the product there.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.