The Alberta government has announced a $4 million program to develop beef markets for animals older than 30 months.
In addition, the Leduc food processing centre received $400,000 to develop new beef products.
The program has several forms.
One is to assist expansion of further meat processing in Alberta to use beef from older cattle. Program applicants may use money for feasibility studies, capital design costs , development, acquisition and installation of processing equipment. Worker training and new technology may also be paid for through this fund.
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Another aspect is new product development including non-food products from rendered material.
New market development may be funded to find specific product opportunities and to cover marketing costs such as buyer presentation, sales incentives to buyers and transportation costs of samples.
Money is available immediately through Alberta Agriculture .
The Beef Information Centre has been working on new products and markets since the beginning of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis when borders closed to Canadian beef and live animals. Some countries have started to accept beef from animals under 30 months, but few are willing to take meat from older cattle.
Imports of offshore beef have stopped, but processors need to make adjustments before using the Canadian product derived mostly from cows, said BIC spokesperson Glen Brand.
“You can’t just displace some of the offshore with Canadian,” he said.
About 65 percent of the imported meat was lean trimmings used for ground beef, while further processed items included hot dogs, bologna, salami and pepperoni. The whole muscle cuts tended to be hip cuts used for cooked beef and deli meats like corned beef. Canada used to export 60 percent of its cows and bulls for processing in the United States. The new challenge is finding a place for that product domestically.
“What this means is we have to triple the size of the amount of commercial product we move here in Canada because of the inability to export those animals live and the product we exported from those animals,” Brand said.
He is part of a group that includes industry representatives, cow boning companies, processors and Agriculture Canada that wants to promote and increase the use of the domestic product.
Most of the major chain restaurants have switched to 100 percent Canadian product.
“Currently Canadian ground beef is trading price competitive to ground imports,” he said.
“We’re seeing this as one of the major opportunities in this to identify the Canadian product in further processed items so customers and consumers can choose to support Canadian more often,” he said.
