The continuing global recession and weakening meat demand have reduced beef and cattle prices worldwide, says Richard Brown, the British representative for Gira, a European agriculture and food market research firm.
However, livestock herds are shrinking in number around the world and prices did not dip as catastrophically as they might have when the financial community started to crash in September 2008.
“Consumption is down and cattle herds are down, which is very, very lucky,” Brown told the Canada Beef Export Federation annual meeting Sept. 18.
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As Canada struggles to regain markets after its six-year struggle with BSE embargos, it must develop a stronger export focus that listens to customer demands.
It should also target customers who can offer better returns such as those in Asia, Europe and Russia, Brown said.
The European Union is open to Canadian beef, providing it is not produced using growth hormones.
Europe is poised to import more beef after years of large surpluses supported by government subsidies.
“It will never likely be a net exporter of beef again,” he said.
Canada also needs to be sensitive to Europeans who do not favour the feedlot system because of environmental and animal welfare concerns. They also prefer lean over marbled beef.
Brazil is a good example of a nation refusing to give customers what they want.
“They really are poor at explaining what is going on and export customers don’t like it,” Brown said.
Russia needs a large volume of meat but imports may drop in favour of the growing domestic poultry and pork supplies being developed with government support, he said.
There is little support for beef production so there are possibilities for more imports from Canada.
“They will be a major importer of beef for a very long time,” said Brown.
Australia has become a major beef force in Russia.
“They went from nothing to 100,000 tonnes.”
China is closed to Canadian beef, although efforts to resume trade after six years of bans continue.
It consumes 25 percent of the world’s meat supply, mostly poultry and pork.
The government is encouraging backyard livestock production to discourage small farmers from leaving the land.
Focus on quality
The Middle East and North Africa comprise a large market area requiring about one million tonnes but there is not much opportunity for Canada because it cannot compete against cheap, lower quality beef from Brazil and India.
Gira has looked at eight countries where long-term growth is possible, noting Canada should target five star hotels and high-end retail if it hopes to sell more beef there.
