Tighter beef import rules brought in last month have not helped the beleaguered Canadian cattle industry as expected.
When trade minister Pierre Pettigrew bowed to beef industry pressure in late May and made it more difficult to import offshore beef for processing, trade department officials expected there would a quick boost for the Canadian sector.
Cattle that cannot be exported because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy now would move to processing plants to fill the void created by fewer imports.
By mid-June, that had not happened.
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“We’re puzzled,” Claudio Valle, trade department director of technical barriers and regulations, said during a June 12 appearance before the House of Commons agriculture committee. “We have not had a lot of success in getting people to market.”
In some cases, processors are short of product to process and yet cows are not moving off Canadian farms to fill the void.
Canadian Alliance MP and Manitoba cattle producer Howard Hilstrom said it is because the domestic marketing system has shut down: “We have to get it up and running again.”
He demanded even tougher import restrictions.
Meanwhile, Canadian companies that import offshore beef above the 76,000 tonnes required under international agreement are outraged over the restrictions.
On May 29, Robert Kalef, president of Centennial Foods in Calgary, complained by letter to Pettigrew that import permits that already were in the system before the May 20 BSE finding had been delayed.
“We respectfully request that instructions be given to your department to approve these supplementary permits immediately to allow us to meet both our financial and our customer obligations,” he wrote in a confidential letter to the trade minister.
“Any delay will further exacerbate the negative effect of this crisis on our company and our employees and undermine our credibility in the marketplace.”
Toronto company Ronald A. Chisholm Ltd. went further, insisting in a May 27 letter to Pettigrew that Canadian grain-fed beef is not a substitute for offshore frozen grass-fed beef imported for use in hamburger and wieners.
The real problem for Canadian beef producers is imports of grain-fed beef from the United States, wrote Chisholm managing director Jeffrey Ryley.
“The imports of high quality fresh grain-fed beef from the U.S.A. is what is creating the significant and immediate problems for Canadian cattle farmers,” he told Pettigrew.
“If you wish to help this sector immediately, then you have to stop the imports of beef from the U.S.A. and not the imports of offshore frozen grass-fed beef that can only arrive in Canada two months from now.”
Trade department officials say there is no chance of restricting imports of American beef. Cattle industry leaders also reject the idea.
Valle said the North American Free Trade Agreement does not allow restrictions for market or economic reasons. And Canada will abide by its international obligation to allow 76,000 tonnes from offshore suppliers.
The only manoeuvering room comes with the thousands of tonnes imported each year under supplementary import permits.
Traditionally, importers have to try to buy from two Canadian suppliers before asking to import. Now, at least five Canadian suppliers must be approached.
“These changes have been made to support our industry,” Valle told MPs.
Hilstrom said they should go further. Supplementary import permits should be suspended as long as Canadian cull cows are available and the export market is closed.
Valle said the government would consider tighter rules if the cattle industry requests them.
But Ryley told Pettigrew such a proposal could come only “from seriously misguided individuals or organizations that do not fully understand this sector of the beef industry.”
