Dreams of new markets danced in their heads as leaders in Canada’s pork industry discussed where it would take them in the coming months and years.

Canada had just won its fight against COOL (Country of Original Labelling) in the United States and was on the brink of signing a new trade agreement – the Trans-Pacific Partnership – as delegates gathered for the 2016 Banff Pork Seminar in mid-January.

Updates concerning COOL and TPP, Canada’s low dollar and trends in a variety of world markets were foremost in delegates’ mind as they wrapped up the 2016 seminar in a Boar Pit, emceed by Shannon Meyers of Fast Genetics.

In his presentation on the first day of the seminar, Canadian Pork Council executive director Martin Rice reminded delegates that all international trade agreements fall under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization, which provided the tools for Canada to finally win its action against COOL.

“We didn’t fight COOL internationally. We did it under the WTO, under the dispute settlement provisions,” he said. “It’s definitely a huge accomplishment for our industry and the beef sector under the rights and obligations under the WTO.” The dispute was started in 2009, and rapidly changed under the Obama administration, said Rice.

The WTO announced early in December of last year that Canada had the right to impose retaliatory tariffs on more than $1 billion worth of products coming in from the United States, he said. Canada’s new government then impressed upon the U.S. Congress that it would use those rights, with the result that COOL was repealed on Dec. 20 for pork, pigs, cattle and beef.

“They became much more engaged when retaliation became cleared,” said Rice.

He credited the steady and consistent efforts of key individuals, industry organizations and provincial governments for finally getting the desired results after years of battling COOL, viewed in Canada as a non-tariff trade barrier.

Looking at broader issues of international trade, Rice described Canada as the most export-dependent of all the pork producing nations in the world.

Unlike the European Union, whose members have some protection within their region, Canada’s pork industry is on its own when it comes to something going wrong with exports, said Rice.

“Over two thirds of our pork production, and this excludes the live pigs, is exported. So, that is an enormous exposure to the export side of things,” he said. Globally, Canada is currently the third largest exporter of pork, behind the U.S. and the EU, with Brazil a distant fourth, but growing.

Cinara Batista, technical co-ordinator for the Brazilian Association for Animal Protein, described in a separate presentation how her country’s pork exports have grown by roughly 600 per cent over the last 50 years and continue to increase steadily, with plenty of resources available for expansion.

Rice said nearly half of Canada’s pork production goes to markets other than the U.S., a considerable change from 20 years ago, when domestic consumers purchased a large proportion of Canada’s total pork production.

That places in context Canada’s need to continue pursuing exports to countries other than the U.S., understanding that exports to Russia have been shut down while there is little potential for any increase in the amount of pork going to Japan.

Rice and other members of the panel were asked during the Boar Pit later on whether, with Canada’s reliance on exports, its pork products would be reduced to a lowest common denominator to compete with other producers.

Rice responded that Canada also has country of origin labelling, but on a voluntary basis and therefore not an issue for the WTO. That does not mean that Canada will not face challenges in the future. “It’s a matter of setting it up in a way that it does not become a barrier to imports,” he said. “We’ve been trying so long to have a platform that distinguishes Canadian pork, there is that question, how do we get the value back to the farm?” said Rice.

The bottom line for exporters is that different markets have different demands, he said. While the EU exports mainly frozen products, Canada is shipping fresh and chilled pork. Customers in the regions receiving those exports seek a wide range of products, from offal to primal cuts, he said. •

— By PHC staff