SELLING grain into the European Union (EU) has the potential to become even more complicated in the future.
As of January 2011 growers who sell canola into the EU will need to confirm their crop has been produced in a sustainable way.
Last year the EU adopted a regulation that any feedstock used in the production of biofuel must come with a certificate showing it has been grown in a sustainable environment.
In 2009 Australia exported about 300,000 tonnes of canola to the EU and most of it came from WA.
It was recently outlined that canola sold onto the EU market could only be produced on land which hadn't been declared of high conservation value.
"They want to make sure that the crops aren't being grown on areas which have been converted to land used for cropping systems," Oilseeds WA executive officer John Duff said.
"That's like saying they want to check that we're not cutting down rainforests to make way for canola crops."
Nick Goddard from the Australian Oilseeds Federation said the new rules shouldn't be too onerous for Australian growers and that the sustainability criteria specified was that land must not have been declared of high conservation value since January 2008.
"Really what the EU is meaning by that is that it wasn't, for example, wetlands or pristine wetlands that have suddenly become cropping land rr land that is cleared forests, that might have been cleared in 2008 and are now used to grow canola for example," he said.
Many growers and industry people wondered if the new regulations would set a precedent for stricter regulations in the future.
Mr Goddard said it would be possible for the EU to demand documentation on inputs like fertiliser and water use in the future but that might be "stretching things a bit far."
"Taken to it's logical extension it's a possibility," he said.
"But it almost gets to a point of absurdity as well, so there is a practical limit at which this becomes effective."
Oilseeds WA executive officer John Duff said stricter regulations would likely be discussed in the future but would need to remain on a practical level.
"WA growers will always do the best they can," he said.
"There will undoubtedly be a trade-off of some description but we aren't living in medieval times.
"With the population continuing to increase Australia is still a major food producing nation and we are a reputable producer.
"We won't be cutting any corners."
Mr Duff said WA growers would continue to do what it needed to do to assure buyers that the WA product was of an incredible quality.
"Overseas markets have always shown great confidence in our product and we'll continue to provide that confidence," he said.
According to Mr Duff an independent audit system would need to be implemented if the EU was to monitor the fertiliser and water intake of WA canola crops in the future.
"To do it we'd need quality monitoring systems like the animal production systems," he said.
"They have been operating all over the world for a really long time and are a proven method of regulation."
