HALIFAX – The official message from cattle industry leaders last week during the semi-annual meeting of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association was that the BSE traumas are almost behind them.
Markets are reopening, Canada has one of the most credible animal health and food safety regimes and world demand for beef is growing.
“If there ever was a time we could say success is within our grasp, the time is now,” Canada Beef Export Federation chair Arno Doerksen from Brooks, Alta., told delegates Aug. 15.
The more sombre message from many delegates is that on the ground, producers are wary, weary and not at all certain the best of times are just around the corner.
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They are seeing declining margins, packer industry consolidation, rising feed costs, continued protectionism in the United States, faltering trade talks and growing public and government demands for costly and time consuming practices for food safety, environment, traceability and age verification.
“Never since I’ve been in cowboy politics have there been so many issues to be concerned about,” CCA vice-president Brad Wildeman said after the meeting.
“The industry is weary. Since 1999, it has been one thing after another, one demand after another. They say, ‘I’m tired of doing things for nothing.’ “
The meeting was filled with calls for industry to do more to brand Canadian beef as the best and safest in the world. Good environmental practices should be maintained and extended, more producers should enroll in the verified beef program offered through CCA, traceability protocols must be strengthened and expanded and there are growing demands for better record-keeping so traceability can include age verification.
In many cases, the promised reward was not necessarily higher prices but rather market retention or expansion.
The optimists saw this as an important marketing strategy that will add to the ID system that was resisted by many producers in the late 1990s but which proved invaluable after BSE struck in 2003.
“We need to change the conversation from what does it cost to what is the impact on long-term competitive advantage,” Wildeman told delegates.
“The Canadian beef advantage is to have one of the best animal health and feed safety systems,” said Glenn Brand of the Beef Information Centre.
Meanwhile, markets are reopening gradually with a recent move in Taiwan and expectations the United States will open the border this autumn to Canadian cattle older than 30 months.
“We have regained our position as the third largest exporter of beef and beef cattle in the world,” CCA executive vice-president Dennis Laycraft told the meeting.
Allan Bloxsom, general manager of industry systems for Meat and Livestock Australia, projected the world population will grow by hundreds of millions of people in the medium term, bringing an increase in demand for beef of more than 12 million tonnes by 2016.
“The world’s population is growing,” he said. “Demand for our product will rise significantly. That is our opportunity.”
But for all the optimistic talk, there also were sobering reminders of industry challenges.
- Laycraft said the new policy to remove specified risk material adds $5 to $20 per head to the Canadian system that the U.S. does not face. Ottawa continues to ignore an industry call for $50 million to help cover these costs.
- Rising feed costs caused in part by government-supported biofuel production, combined with a high Canadian dollar, have cut into prices and producer margins.
- So far in 2007, a surge in imports has exceeded a smaller increase in exports, reducing Canada’s net beef and cattle trade surplus by two percent.
CCA president Hugh Lynch-Staunton said too many in the industry are dwelling on the negative and ignoring the potential for profitability.
“I think the negativity is out of proportion,” he said.
“We don’t want to be foolishly optimistic and not recognize the challenges, but we don’t want people to be suicidal either. There are opportunities.”
Saskatchewan CCA board member Lynn Grant said it is more difficult for producers on the ground to see beyond the daily challenges and costs to the longer term.
“I guess every industry has its optimists who believe you are always on the cusp of something great,” he said in an interview.
“But the reality is that we have not recovered financially from BSE and the demands keep piling up. We might be stronger in the sense that we know better what it takes to be stronger.”
