Wheat farmers call for compensation after dumping

Grain farmers on P.E.I. are calling for compensation after a typographical error was blamed for causing them to dump tonnes of milling wheat.

David Mol, president of the P.E.I. Grain and Protein Council, said he heard from concerned farmers over the weekend.

"Farmers have lost actual dollars out of their pockets. For some, it has been very significant," he said.

A recent letter from Dover Mills — a main buyer — to the P.E.I. Grain Elevators Corporation said the standard for allowable levels of a fungal toxin was one part per million.

For more than 20 years, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has set the acceptable level of the toxin, known as Fusarium blight, at two parts per million.

Wheat was dumped in fields and downgraded to animal feed before the industry learned there was a misprint in the letter from Dover Mills.

"If this mistake was made in any other industry … compensation would be certainly part of the discussion and I don't see why it shouldn't be in the agriculture industry as well," Mol said.

Len McCardle, a member of the board Grain and Protein Council, said the situation created "incredible confusion."

"I'm not sure who's going to have to pay," McCardle said. "Somebody should be held accountable."

It remains unclear how much good wheat was dumped.