The federal government needs to act quickly to resolve an ongoing trade dispute with China over canola exports, fearful Prairie farmers told MPs on Tuesday, who warned the clock is ticking to find a resolution.

“The timing of this issue and the timing of me being here could not be worse. I should be at home seeding… the season is short and this issue is weighing heavy on every grain farmer,” Stephen Vandervalk, vice-president with the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association told the House agriculture committee.

Prairie farmers, he added, will “be out of time” if the situation is not resolved in the next three weeks.

Canada and China are embroiled in an ongoing trade dispute over canola exports after Beijing pulled the export licenses from two major Canadian grain companies – Richardson International Ltd. and Viterra – in March. That same month the Canola Council of Canada announced Chinese importers had stopped buying Canadian canola seed. Forty per cent of Canada’s canola exports are sent to China. In 2018, the market was valued at $2.7 billion.

The current trade dispute, Vandervalk said, is rapidly becoming the “largest crisis” his family has had to deal with in their 100 years of farming in Southern Alberta. It’s a situation that could potentially cost his family’s operation $100,000 next year alone if a fix isn’t found.

“This is a political issue pure and simple. Political problems need political solutions. If we must play the game of grain inspections, so be it, but in the meantime Canadian grain farmers are the ones paying the price for political failings,” Vandervalk said before urging the federal government to put political pressure on China.

Vandervalk isn’t alone in his concerns.

Mark Kaun is a canola grower who farms just south of Red Deer, Alta. He told MPs the current dispute with China has cost his operation about $25,000. Most of his 2018 crop is still sitting in bins on his farm, while thousands of dollars in canola seed is sitting in bags.

“I would hate to call my seed provider and say I don’t want my $25,000 order. What does he do with it?,” he asked MPs, adding on-farm storage is also becoming an issue. “I don’t have room to carry two years of production,”

Farmers, he said, are not risk-averse. The difference, he said, is the hit trade disputes can have on a farmer’s bottom line. “If I get hailed out, I have insurance for that,” he said. There’s no insurance, he explained, for the times farmers can’t sell their crops.

Adding to the uncertainty, farmers said Tuesday, is the fact the canola fight with China isn’t an isolated grain trade issue.

“If canola was the only commodity that we grew that was currently facing a trade barrier, and I don’t believe for a second this is has anything to do with science, this is political retaliation, we would be able to bunker down and take a couple of years of lower prices,” Megz Reynolds, a farmer from Saskatchewan told MPs.

“The frightening reality is that almost every crop being grown in Western Canada is currently struggling with one trade barrier or another,” she said. Reynolds is seeking the Conservative party nomination for the riding of Cypress Hills – Grasslands.

Reynolds said she expected some Prairie farmers will cut back on their planned canola acreage, hinting in her area the alternative crops might be flax or mustard.

The list of Canadian grain trade issues is lengthy. Saudi Arabia has stopped purchasing barley, Italy has shut out Canadian durum wheat (a key ingredient in pasta), there an ongoing dispute with India over pulse crops, Peru has issues with Canadian wheat and Vietnam has stopped buying wheat because of thistle seeds.

Those trade disputes, Vandervalk said, combined are affecting some $4.2 billion worth of trade.

Canada has asked China to allow the Trudeau government to send a scientific delegation to China to discuss their trade concerns face-to-face. On Monday, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in question period she expected a response soon to Canada’s query, which was made last week.