Beef industry needs gov’t help: expert

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Published: September 11, 2003

Canada has too much idle protein wandering its countryside and the government has to do something about it.

That’s according to Ted Bilyea, president of Maple Leaf Foods International and co-chair of the Canadian Agri-Food Marketing Council.

Bilyea spoke to a Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership luncheon crowd Sept. 5 in Saskatoon about bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the livestock industry.

Bilyea said governments must act to remove surplus cows, which he later referred to as surplus protein, from the food supply.

“This is not just a beef crisis. The entire infrastructure is being hurt by this. We have a huge inventory of proteins,” he said.

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Bilyea endorsed the plan presented by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan to reduce the Canadian cattle herd by 12 percent.

The group said that removing 620,000 cattle would return the herd to “near normal” levels, a move that would help prevent more economic damage to the industry.

While Canadian beef only began trickling across the American border Sept. 5, Canadians have done their best to reduce the beef glut here at home.

Canada’s Beef Information Centre said Canadians took home 123,000 tonnes of beef during July 2003, compared with 76,000 tonnes last July.

Bilyea suggested this vote of confidence in the safety of Canadian beef may be coming at the expense of the country’s pork and poultry industries.

But Lloyd Johnson of the Alberta Chicken Producers’ Marketing Board said that may not necessarily be the case.

“We continue to see really strong demand for chicken,” he said. “The only explanation I have is this – most chicken is consumed fresh. All this beef is being purchased and thrown into the freezer.”

He said the effects of that stored beef really remain to be seen, and that chicken consumption is up in Alberta 1.5 to two percent over this time last year.

The Canadian Pork Council was unsure whether pork consumption was being affected by the rush on Canadian beef.

Stay optimistic

As for the BSE crisis, Bilyea said cattle producers should look toward a post-BSE market.

“As bad as BSE looks,” he said, “we’re going to get through it.”

Bilyea gave several reasons why the beef industry and the country should be confident.

Canada had only one isolated case of BSE. Canadian BSE is not systemic and did not appear in clusters as it did in Japan and Germany where industries were decimated by the disease.

He added that consumer confidence has remained high because Canadians trust their food inspection and regulatory agencies. Bilyea said the Canadian food safety system “is far superior to what exists in other countries.

“However, BSE is a painful warning that the Canadian operating system can never take itself for granted.”

About the author

Allen Warren

Saskatoon newsroom

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