Some Saskatchewan canary seed producers with unpaid deliveries to ILTA grain are facing substantial losses.

ILTA Grain filed for creditor protection earlier this month, and its Grain Commission licenses were suspended at sites like Belle Plaine and Saskatoon.

Most crops are covered under the Grain Commission bonding program, but canary seed is not.

The executive director of the Saskatchewan Canary seed Development Commission, Kevin Hursh, says a couple of canary seed producers are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by ILTA grain and may not be paid.

He says “the deliveries just fell into the time when ILTA was going into credit protection.”

Hursh says the Canary seed Commission will ask producers at the annual meeting this winter if canary seed handlers should be included under grain commission bonding and licensing requirements.