It is potentially one of the world’s biggest markets for pork.
And now one of the barriers that has prevented Canadian farmers from selling into that market has been officially dismantled.
Canada and China last week signed an agreement under which China will accept pork and beef from specially approved slaughter plants.
It’s the first such agreement China has signed with any foreign exporter, and it didn’t take long for it to pay dividends for pork producers and exporters.
Maple Leaf Foods shipped two containers of frozen pork to China April 18, the day after the protocol was signed by agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief, in Beijing during an eight-day trade mission to China.
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“This marks an historic turning point in the Canadian meat trade with China and will benefit the entire industry,” said Maple Leaf president Michael McCain.
Under the agreement, China will accept health and safety data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency related to the hog diseases porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome and transmissible gastroenteritis.
Last month Chinese veterinary officials visited Canada and approved Maple Leaf’s pork plants in Burlington, Ont., and Brandon, Man.
The Canadian pork industry welcomed the agreement, which is linked to China’s upcoming entry into the World Trade Organization.
Martin Lavoie of Canada Pork International, the industry’s export development agency, said it can’t help but get excited looking at China’s rapidly growing population of 1.2 billion, and the fact that pork accounts for 70 percent of the meat consumed there.
“Some see China as potentially the largest market for Canada because the demand is very high and because of the size of the market,” he said from Ottawa.
However, he cautioned it’s too early to make predictions about how much Canadian pork will eventually find its way to China.
“I think after a year or so, when everybody has been approved to export to China, then we’ll be in a better position to judge the potential for Canada,” he said. “But I’m sure it’s likely to be a huge market.”
By September, many more plants should be approved, and that’s when Canadian sales should start to take off, he added.
In recent years Canada has shipped small volumes of pork to China under special export permits. Statistics Canada reports sales averaging about 3,300 tonnes over the past four years out of total exports of around 500,000 tonnes.
Lavoie said that besides its size, one of the most attractive features of China is that there is demand both for high quality pork cuts and for the rest of the carcass, including items like offal and feet.
“If you can find a market where each cut is the cut of choice, then you’re in a really good position.”
Gilles Dulac, a veterinarian with the CFIA, said the agency has been engaged in difficult and frustrating negotiations with China over sanitary conditions since 1996.
“This is something we were able to extract from them with some level of reluctance.”
He said the Chinese were adamant about imposing conditions that were “out of this world” and clearly constituted a non-tariff trade barrier. However once China began its campaign to become a member of the WTO, it became more ready to negotiate an agreement acceptable to both sides.
“The Chinese were given some fairly strict warning that if they did not wise up and open up, we wouldn’t vote for them to access the WTO.”
