Dutch greenhouse peppers were really cheap

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Dutch greenhouse bell peppers dumped on the Canadian market were priced at roughly a third of their real value, the Canada Border Services Agency has determined.

In its statement of reasons released Tuesday to accompany the Sept. 20 finding that Dutch peppers were dumped on the Canadian market, the Agency determined the normal value during 2009 for greenhouse bell peppers from The Netherlands was $3.55 a kilogram, while the weighted average export price was $1.22 a kg.

George Gilvesy, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, says the statement “substantiates why we made the complaint in the first place.”

The organization concurs with the Agency’s analysis and is satisfied with the numbers it used in the statement. The difference between the Dutch peppers’ normal value and weighted export price “is extremely dramatic,” he notes.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal is continuing to study the question of injury to the domestic industry and is slated to release its finding by Oct. 19. Provisional duties have been in place since June and will continue to apply until then.

The Agency says in its statement there are 34 greenhouse pepper exporting companies and 26 importers who dealt with the Dutch peppers.

None of the exporters provided a complete response to the Agency’s request for information. The Agency requested costing information from the Canadian industry to use as a substitute for Dutch costing data.

Gilvesy says they argued the Canadian growing season and cost structure is quite similar to The Netherlands and that’s why the domestic industry’s costing data was acceptable.

Ontario accounts for 58 per cent, British Columbia for 39 per cent and Alberta for two per cent of all the greenhouse peppers grown in Canada.

Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers launched its anti-dumping complaint in January. Forty-one of the organization’s 236 growers grew greenhouse bell peppers in 2009. Other Canadian growers support the complaint.

The Canadian market for greenhouse peppers is estimated to be $140 million annually. It’s supplied by both domestic production and imports mainly from Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain and the United States. From 2006 to 2009, Mexico was the largest exporter of greenhouse peppers to Canada followed by The Netherlands.

Canadian greenhouse pepper growers normally sell their products domestically through licensed marketers, who can sell the peppers wherever they want. Some is also sold for export. Peppers for the domestic market are sold to retailers, mostly large grocery stores, and wholesalers, supplying the food service industry. Greenhouse pepper importers sell their product to the same group of retailers and wholesalers, it says in the statement. BF