The $7,000 that the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency gave to Viewtrak Technologies for a trip to China meant the difference between going to China or not, says its president.
Jake Burlet said the contacts made on the first trip in May, which was designed to establish connections related to swine genetics, traceability, research and trade, have allowed him to make two more follow-up trips to China.
“In many geographies in the world I can go by myself, but with China, you’re required to go with an interpreter and the cost is double,” he said.
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The Alberta government announced funding in mid-September for 30 projects worth more than $3 million, including the Viewtrak Technologies trip.
The projects included one international market development project, 14 research and development projects, 14 industry development projects and one agribusiness proposal.
Darcy Fitzgerald, director of industry investment with ALMA, said the agency had received 160 applications as of Sept. 21 and approved 41, even though only 30 have been announced.
Fitzgerald said many of the projects were carryovers from projects approved by the government’s former funding agency, the Alberta Livestock Industry Diversification Fund.
In July 2008, Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld announced that the provincial government would take a more focused approach to funding livestock and meat projects in an effort to boost the struggling livestock sector. The ALMA board was created to oversee the new strategy.
Alberta Pork chair Paul Hodgman said the $127,710 his organization received from ALMA to help reassure consumers that pork was safe to eat during the H1N1 crisis was critical to the industry’s survival.
“We applied for the money in the midst of the outbreak when we knew we had to react quickly,” Hodgman said. “ALMA jumped on board really quickly.”
The money was used to help ease consumers’ fears that pork was unsafe to eat.
Alberta Pork also helped secure $15,000 in ALMA funding to organize a hog technology workshop in Red Deer.
Linda Sauntner of the Bison Producers of Alberta said her organization was caught in the switch from the Alberta Diversified Livestock Industry Fund to ALMA, costing it $120,000 for the third year of a three-year marketing fund program and forcing it to lay off its marketing manager.
“We didn’t have the funds to carry on.”
She said ALMA officials have encouraged her organization to change a future application from a marketing fund to a business fund. It has since applied to ALMA for $60,000 to develop a three-year business strategy plan.
Alberta Beef Producers chair Rick Burton said some of the projects that ALMA has funded will probably prove more useful than others.
A recent revision to the Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy has identified four funding priorities – market access, demand, competitiveness and information flow – by which Burton believes future projects will be judged.
“I hope additional funds would be closely aligned with those four priorities,” he said.
One of the proposals approved was a $108,150 project for a food animal veterinary student feedlot work experience project, which was awarded to Feedlot Health Management Services (FHMS). Its managing director, veterinarian Kee Jim, is also an ALMA board member.
Burton said ALMA board members need to be careful about the optics of awarding funding to one of their colleagues’ businesses.
“There’s no secret there’s a lot of producers concerned about a potential conflict of interest here. I don’t believe Mr. Jim would have been in on the vote, but it’s a concern,” Burton said during a break in an ALMA beef cattle advisory committee meeting.
“Nevertheless, ALMA will have to be very circumspect how they deal with the issue.”
Fitzgerald said the ALMA board was honouring a previous commitment made by the Alberta Livestock Industry Diversification Fund when it approved the money for FHMS.
The ALMA board is expected to approve $40 million worth of projects this year.
