Expanding trade the focus of this year's meeting

This past year was easily the most difficult the Canadian cattle industry has seen in years, and that was reflected in the mood at this year’s Canadian Cattlemen’s Association semi-annual meeting.

CCA President, Brad Wildeman began the meeting with a report that focused mostly on the Canadian government’s inability to help the beef industry in the world of international trade.“What we want is to establish an International Trade Directorate for agriculture,” he said, adding that they have been working to get this developed and are utilizing the expertise of retired civil servants who have experience dealing in the area of international trade.

Executive Vice President, Dennis Laycraft, summarized the year from his perspective by criticizing the Canadian regulatory system for adding unnecessary costs that which in a high volume, low margin business, makes it difficult to stay competitive.

The Canadian packing industry is at a $34 per head disadvantage to the U.S., explaining why packers on this side of the border are operating below capacity.
Laycraft also said regulators are slowing down the development of new feed grain varieties and approvals for veterinary drugs that could make us even with U.S. counterparts or even one step ahead.

It has been five years since BSE closed our export borders and Canada still lacks normal beef trade with key markets such as South Korea. Everyone is frustrated by the fact that even though the Canadian industry has jumped through many hoops, including—increased disease surveillance, SRM feed ban and traceability—off-shore trade remains elusive.

How important is trade?

One way of explaining the value of trade is to see each animal as a sum of its parts. While the Canadian market provides a decent price for the prime meat cuts - short ribs, tongue, liver and other cuts don’t sell well here, but are popular overseas. Limited access to those markets reduces the cut-out value of Canadian cattle by $100 a head. Upping the value of the finished product is key to bringing profitability back to all sectors of the industry.

Complicating matters is the fact that the Canadian cattle industry can’t simply go into a country to sell beef. Agreements between the trading countries’ food safety organizations must be arranged beforehand. Since all countries are different to deal with, a concerted effort must be applied before there are results.

A combination of factors are slowing down progress. Politics between countries, lack of coordination between government departments, bureaucracy and a certain level of apathy means our beef industry is having difficulty striking outside of North America. As the world continues to move forward, Canada seems to be standing still.

The CCA is asking the government develop an International Trade Directorate that would have representation from agriculture, foreign trade and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency coordinating a focused effort to develop more foreign markets.