Who profited at the expense of whom and by how much from the Canadian BSE crisis?
An economist who was studying the Canadian beef industry value chain at the time of the BSE announcement says “finger pointing may be distracting producers from bigger issues in the beef business.”
“The Canadian industry has some real advantages over the American one and needs to get back to focusing on what is important … before they know it, the border will be open and the industry will be back to exporting and all of the same opportunities that were there before will be back. Changed, but back,” said Ted Schroeder of Kansas State University.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Schroeder delivered his report paid for by the National Beef Industry Development Fund on Dec. 15, 2003.
Had BSE not been the hot topic, the report might have been a popular analysis of an industry that was taking its first, solid steps toward integrating producer, feeder, packer and retailer operations in a manner that would make the whole Canadian industry more responsive to consumers and competitive with other exporters.
Schroeder said BSE fell into the Canadian cattle business at a time when traceability and uniform breeding standards were just starting to make the Canadian industry stand out in North America.
“You already had the more homogeneous cattle herd, better geographic dispersion and concentration of beef cattle. Canadian producers are filled with an entrepreneurial spirit that makes them informed, progressive risk takers. Canada was well poised to make some serious productivity and marketing gains against the U.S. industry. Then BSE,” he said.
“American producers can count on a big domestic industry and Dr. Atkins (the protein diet promoter) to support them. Canadian producers had to build their business on exports,” Schroeder said.
“When the border does open, and it will, the Canadian industry doesn’t want to get caught fighting amongst themselves when they need to be getting back to improving their products and marketing.”
“This is a chain,” said Schroeder. All parts of the meat production cycle need to rely on each other to get quality meat to the consumer.
“Canada was starting to trace back information and share between the parties. Not just sharing information but profits as well. It would be a real shame if they lost the trust they took so long to build now,” he said.
Schroeder’s report suggested that Canada had too great a dependence on the U.S. market, as was shown with country-of-origin labelling.
He said Canada, when it re-enters the world market, must build on its strengths again.
“Australia, the leading beef exporter, plans to have complete meat traceability in the near future.
Canada would be wise to first enhance animal traceability so that it can trace the animal to all farms where it has resided, not just to the ranch of origin.”
Schroeder said those types of market opportunities for Canada will “quickly pass if it doesn’t keep moving forward” as export markets open up.
