EDMONTON — The president of the Korea Deer Breeders Association recently visited Canada to demonstrate the growing good will between the two countries.
“Between us as Korean deer farmers and Canadian elk farmers, we will be talking together to make a better relationship as better farmers for a better future for both of us,” said Yu-Hwan Chung through an interpreter.
Chung raises about 450 elk on two farms in South Korea.
Alberta Elk Commission chair Connie Seutter met Chung during a recent trade mission to South Korea, where they forged a memorandum of understanding between the Canadian and Korean elk industries.
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The two organizations have yet to sign the memorandum, but they have agreed to exchange technology, best farm practices, research and development of unique technologies and semen to improve genetics.
The memorandum also included working with both governments to reopen markets to elk antler velvet, processed antler and live animal and meat export.
Canada has been locked out of the lucrative South Korean elk market for 14 years. Korea closed its border to Canadian elk products in December 2000 after an elk exported from Canada later tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
Elk producers have lobbied Canadian officials to help reopen the border, but there has been little willingness from Korea to do so.
“When the topic of the MOU came up, I was blown away,” Seutter told elk producers at their convention.
Korea’s 4,000 elk farmers raise 20,000 elk that produce 100 tonnes of green elk velvet a year. They import another 500 tonnes and still can’t fill demand.
Seutter said she had received nothing but negative information from the Canadian trade office in the weeks leading up to her trade mission to South Korea, including a phone call that the Koreans didn’t want Seutter visiting their country.
“They were telling me, ‘I don’t know why you’re coming, they don’t want you here. They don’t like you and in fact they hate you so I don’t know why you’re wasting your time,’ ” she said.
Seutter met with Chung during the organized trade event and later travelled to Chung’s farm, where the pair hammered out the memorandum of understanding between the two industries.
“This is a really special moment today to have Mr. Chung here with such a desire to work with our industry,” she said while introducing Chung.
Chung said Korean elk producers want to reopen the border to Canadian elk and elk products.
“We need to develop new producers plus need to expand the number of deer (which is what elk are called in Korea),” he said.
“It is not my own desire, it is all our desire as deer farmers to reopen the market.”
Despite the desire of elk producers in both countries to reopen the border, it is up to politicians to remove barriers to trade.
A second trip to Korea and China is planned to formalize the agreement and discuss future trade opportunities.
mary.macarthur@producer.com
