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Greenhouse growers face deadline for new cross-border directive

Canadian greenhouse facilities participating in the legacy greenhouse export certification program must soon adhere to a revised program.

Beginning Dec. 18, 2021, the directive D-96-12 Greenhouse Certification Program for Export of Greenhouse-Grown plants to the United States (CGCP) will be repealed and officially replaced with the United States-Canada Greenhouse-Grown Plant Certification Program (GCP).

The transition period from the CGCP to the GCP ends Dec. 17, 2021. Old CGCP export certification labels and interfacility stamps will no longer be valid. These will be collected by the CFIA.

The Canadian Government is warning applicant GCP facilities which have not signed a Compliance Agreement with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that they will no longer be authorized to either ship plants to the U.S. using an export certification label, nor domestically within Canada using an interfacility stamp.

According to the CFIA website, exporters must meet both countries’ phytosanitary import requirements. The GCP allows greenhouse-grown plants to move between Canada and the United States more freely, under the export certification label instead of a phytosanitary certificate.

Greenhouse growers who participate in the program must meet certain requirements in sourcing of plant materials and production practices.

Exemptions to GCP provisions may be granted to authorized GCP facilities who have already applied through their local inspection office. Provisional approval will be valid until the end of March 2022. Other exemption requests will continue to be reviewed for joint formal approval by the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS-USDA) and the CFIA.

Growers are advised to contact their local CFIA office for more information. Technical requirement for the GCP are available on the CFIA website.

There is a GCP Industry Training Program for facilities participating in the GCP, created by Flowers Canada Growers in collaboration with Québec Vert. Interested producers may visit the Flowers Canada Growers GCP web page or contact gcp@fco.ca.