TORONTO – Canada’s beef industry last week received a pep talk about the potential of the Asian market, but the optimistic message was tempered by a reminder of how far back Canada is in that booming market.
Last year, exports to the region grew more than 40 percent to an estimated 16,600 tonnes, equivalent to more than 90,000 fed cattle.
Yet Canada occupied little more than one percent of the region’s total beef imports, and less than one-sixth of the space the Canadian Beef Export Federation hopes to capture within five years when it dreams of 105,000 tonnes of sales.
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The fact that sales have more than tripled in recent years can be attributed to the federation’s decision to open sales offices in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
But the sales efforts will have to intensify if the ambitious decade-end goal is to be reached.
“The message (that) has been there is an opportunity for us,” federation president and Brooks, Alta. rancher Jim Graham told the annual meeting Feb. 7. “We have to take advantage of it.”
It was a message reinforced by sales representatives hired by beef exporters to sell their message in the growing Asian markets.
They reported a difficult time winning recognition for Canadian products over better known American, Australian and New Zealand brands.
They reported on the lingering Asian tradition of favoring grass-fed over grain-fed beef.
And they pleaded with Canadian beef producers and exporters to spend more time traveling to Asia to meet potential customers and buyers.
Potential market growing
Still, they argued that growing Asian affluence and western influence mean there is a real potential market for Canadian products among the hundreds of millions of Asia residents.
“I strongly believe the time is right for us,” Amos Kim, Korean marketing representative for the beef export federation, told the meeting.
“It is high time more (potential exporters) make contact with Korean clients and try harder to meet their specifications.”
The federation estimates last year’s sales of 16,600 tonnes were worth $90 million, accounted for 100,000 beef cows sold and consumed production from the equivalent of 2,500 Canadian ranches.
By the year 2000, the federation wants that increased to a trade value of $630 million, supporting more than 16,000 ranches across Canada.
Last year, the beef industry established a sales and marketing office in Hong Kong. Next year, Hong Kong reverts to Chinese control, giving Canadian beef its first toe-hold in the nation with 1.1 billion mouths to feed.
