Canadian Beef Export Federation president Ted Haney remains the perpetual optimist.
There was lots of bad news to report at the federation’s semi-annual meeting March 11: many world markets remain closed or restricted to Canadian beef imports; Canada’s trade promotion effort is woefully inadequate; export targets for 2007 were not even close to being met and Canadian beef and cattle exports are not yet close to recovering from the devastation of border closings after BSE in 2003.
Yet Haney told the meeting that all the signs are positive.
Read Also
The Western Producer Livestock Report – July 31, 2025
Western Producer Livestock Report for July 31, 2025. See U.S. & Canadian hog prices, Canadian bison & lamb market data and sales insights.
“We are on the road to trade recovery,” he said.
The value of exports rose four percent last year, “and this we believe is our turning point.”
Haney predicted that optimism and investment will result in a significant expansion of cattle production and processing after 2015, and said the industry’s goal is to more than double the number of cattle raised, processed and exported offshore by that date.
However, reports to the CBEF meeting indicated that at least in the short term, export goals are not being met.
Japan was projected to import 13,000 tonnes of Canadian beef in 2007 and ended up importing only 4,300 tonnes.
Exports to Mexico were 10,000 tonnes less than projected.
And instead of 20,000 tonnes to Hong Kong, Canada shipped 8,100.
Meanwhile, imports soared 74 percent to almost 182,000 tonnes on the strength of the Canadian dollar, and Canada’s net beef trade surplus fell 45,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes.
The CBEF meeting received sales analysis that indicated the country is far from totally recovering from border closings and sales losses after BSE.
In 2002, exports totalled a record 521,000 tonnes, worth $2.1 billion. Last year, exports of 413,000 tonnes were worth $1.45 billion.
And Agriculture Canada projects that by 2015, export totals will be 495,000 tonnes, still below the 2002 record.
Haney told the meeting that projection is too conservative.
He called for a strategy that will see exports of up to 650,000 tonnes by 2015 and then soaring to 800,000 tonnes after that. Half of those targets will be offshore, he added.
“I am an optimist and I believe that we must champion a new focus on Canada’s international trading life, modernize Canada’s trade negotiation strategies and philosophies, stimulate the development of a deeply rooted export culture, export 650,000 tonnes of Canadian beef before 2015 and rebuild the optimism necessary to process 4.5 million (animals) in Canada and produce 1.6 million tonnes of Canadian beef, exporting 800,000 tonnes,” he said in his report to the meeting.
Haney noted that while restoring trade to pre-BSE levels has been a struggle, the 413,000 tonnes exported last year were more than four times what was exported when CBEF was created in 1990.
