ASSINIBOIA, Sask. – Canadian beef exporters might have to battle Brazil to win the Asian market, Canada Beef Export Federation president Neil Jahnke told Sask-atchewan producers at a recent conference.
“We’ve got to be there now, not three years from now,” said Jahnke. “We don’t want to be there after the South Americans are there.”
Brazilian producers are not big competition now, but “if they ever get their act together, which they are doing, their production capacity is great.”
Canadian exporters have the edge, he said, because they have a couple of years to establish buyers in countries such as Japan and South Korea. And once an Asian buyer has established a relationship with a supplier, he is intensely loyal, Jahnke said.
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While Asian loyalty is an asset for sellers, it also demands care and attention from exporters to ensure they treat their partner well, Jahnke said. Japanese beef buyers insist on shipments arriving on time and at the quality they have requested. Any failure to meet either of these can lose customers forever
But Canadian exporters have recently proven themselves to some Japanese buyers by taking extraordinary actions to correct problems.
Ironically, the recent port strike in Vancouver has given Canadian exporters a good name, Jahnke said. When the strike hit, a shipment to a Japanese buyer was waiting in a container at port and would have been delayed. Instead of blaming the port and allowing the delay, the beef exporter chartered a plane and shipped another load of beef there on time.
Only 7,333 tonnes of Canadian beef were exported to Asia in 1993, but this year more than 17,000 tonnes will be sent.
