Great news for beef and pork producers and the entire meat industry as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted November 5, “Good news for Canadian farmers today: Canadian pork and beef exports to China will resume. Thanks to Ambassador Barton and the Canadian meat industry for their work on re-opening this important market for our meat producers and their families.”
Then Ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said after months of hard work and constructive dialogue, China would be re-opening its market for Canadian pork and beef. “Thank you to many who played a role! We will continue to work hard for our producers and processors.”
Then Manitoba Pork Council said producers welcomed the announcement that China will once again accept Canadian pork. Demand for high-quality pork by Chinese consumers is high, and Manitoba producers are eager to meet their needs.
“We especially commend Ambassador Dominic Barton, International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr, and Agriculture and Agri-food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau for their tireless efforts to reach this resolution.”
Rick Bergmann of Steinbach, MB, the Chair of the Canadian Pork Council, said they expect the movement of Canadian pork to China to eclipse the pace set before China’s suspension of Canadian pork imports in June.
After just over four months in place, China announced an end to its suspension of Canadian pork and beef imports.
Bergmann said before June 25, the Chinese demands for pork and different cuts of pork were changing and increasing, due in part to the challenges faced by a country that’s dealing with African Swine Fever.
“China is our third-largest market. In the first part of 2019, we saw some significant increase in volume and then that all ended June 25, so it’s a critical market place for us. We sell them different cuts. We sell them products that we don’t use here in Canada either, so it’s very much a win-win customer for us,” he said.
“With such a large country, we look forward to more opportunities to enhance and build on what we had in the past. As you know, African Swine Fever has been a significant challenge in many Asian countries, including China, impacted heavily by this disease; they require a nutritious form of protein. They’re looking at Canadian pork now again to fulfill their needs there. We’re very fortunate and look forward to building a stronger relationship than what we would have even had in the past.”
Bergmann said he sees the continued opportunity within China to move more and more Canadian pork.
“The Canadian pork industry is working diligently to strengthen its relations with Chinese pork importers, and we look forward to significant trade moving forward.”
“I am very thankful that our team of negotiating people negotiated a deal with China, and came up with a deal so that we can keep our barn doors open,” is how Hog Boss James Hofer of the Starlite Colony near Starbuck, MB put it. “Manitoba is a net exporting province. Seven out of 10 pigs need to leave the country for that matter. And the spinoff effect is huge. Without being selfish, just thinking about pigs, if we can’t feed the grain, the repercussions are endless.”
Hofer said if we don’t sell our pigs, they don’t sell their grain. As agriculture goes, so the economy goes.
“And people need to understand that if agriculture isn’t going, if commerce isn’t flowing from agriculture, it’s devastating.”
Another challenge for farmers, including the Starlite Colony, had to do with the problems that Mother Nature presented them affecting the harvest and mainly spreading of manure.
“Oh, man. Manure-spreading was a challenge this fall. It usually takes us three weeks to get it done; now, it took two months. And the last part of it was a challenge where the conditions were wet and cold. But somehow the boys pulled it off, and they got it done,” said Hofer. “And the equipment, everything you could see taxed to the limit. The boys, the perseverance, they were getting stuck and all that stuff. It was a challenge. Yeah, it was a good crop. With the amount of rainfall we got when we got it, very thankful for what we got.” •
— By Harry Siemens