Gary Smith’s voice crackled over a cellular phone from somewhere in rural North Dakota.
The president of Alta Exports International would have preferred to be looking for 170 Red Angus cattle in Canada, but there is no health protocol in place for him to be able to supply Canadian cattle and satisfy his Chinese customer.
“We have one choice – not to do the business or buy the cattle here,” he said. “Our loss is the northern states’ gain.”
Smith is frustrated by the lack of protocols in the wake of a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy that closed international borders to Canadian animals.
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Last week at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina he finalized a deal with the Inter-Regional Beef Breeding Cattle Development Fund in Ryazanskaya Oblast, Russia, which will eventually see $4 million worth of cattle and genetics go to that country.
The deal includes 1,000 breeding stock, 1,000 units of semen and 2,000 embryos, as well as technology.
The Russians chose Limousin, Charolais, Salers and Herefords during tours of farms and ranches before heading to Agribition. They also want Simmental, Angus and black Maine Anjou.
“They can buy the cattle cheaper from Europe, but they like our methods of production and management,” Smith said. “It’s really exciting. Russia got a chance to be the first major player to reinstate health protocols for breeding cattle from Canada.”
Larry Delver of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Canadian officials have drafted an export health certificate for Russia.
“We’ve gone along with their wording, which was really difficult to do,” he said. “If they accept it we’re in business.”
Delver said Russia wants a guarantee that live animals have never been fed feed of ruminant origin. Canada is reluctant to place that guarantee in an agreement even though Russian buyers wouldn’t likely want cattle older than 30 months.
China requires an agreement for each commodity. All the health certificates in place right now state that Canada is free of BSE.
“None of these health certificates are valid anymore,” said Delver. “We have to renegotiate the whole thing and so far they’ve not been ready to negotiate. The minute they’re ready to sign, we’re sure ready.”
Smith said he hopes the announcement of the Russian deal will motivate Ottawa to push harder to get protocols in place.
He said his company’s average sale to China is worth $1-$1.5 million each load. That’s money Canadian producers will lose out on while borders are closed. The Red Angus deal, for example, took 18 months to work out.
“It is a big deal,” he said.
“We had support from Canadian breeders to get it done. It’s really frustrating when all of that ends.”
