JAKARTA, Indonesia – Visits to food shows, tours of grocery stores and a flour mill, a meeting with Indonesia’s president and several Japanese and Indonesian agriculture and food ministers and the unveiling of a totem pole.
These were some of the components of agriculture minister Ralph Goodale’s 10-day Asian trade mission.
There were no contract signing ceremonies or announcements of multi-million dollar deals as in higher profile trade missions led by prime minister Jean ChrŽtien and provincial premiers.
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But deal signing was not the trip’s goal, said Goodale.
“Our objective was to raise and wave the Canadian flag to emphasize we are strong and reliable producers of major agricultural commodities such as wheat and canola and soybeans and we will continue to be in that business for the long term.”
But also, it was to highlight Canada’s processed food sector, he said.
With the economic and population growth of the region and the fact Canada’s competitors visit the region regularly, Canada must be here.
And the cost of Goodale’s trip – about $250,000 – is money well spent, he said.
The 20 Canadian businesses with booths at the FoodEx show in Tokyo were polled. They indicated that follow-up business would run into several million dollars.
“When we traveled to Asia in 1994 visiting Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong, in the following 12 months, Canadian agrifood sales increased in the region of $400 million. If we can get that kind of rate of return on the $250,000 we are spending this time, it is money very, very well invested,” Goodale said.
Accompanying him and other federal agriculture officials were the ministers of agriculture for Prince Edward Island and British Columbia and senior officials of other provincial agricultural ministries.
The business delegation included representatives of the Canadian dairy and chicken farmers associations, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, brewing companies, Ontario soybean growers, the Quebec federation of co-operatives, cattle and pig genetics exporters, small meat packers and others.
But several members of the business delegation said they had mixed feelings about the trip.
During informal conversations, they said such missions are important to building trade relations in the area. But they also said they could do without the time consuming, formal trappings that go along with traveling with a cabinet minister.
Ribbon cuttings, speeches by Goodale, and photo opportunities such as the unveiling of a totem pole Canada donated to Indonesia got the local media out and raised the profile of the trade mission.
The minister’s involvement also underlined points Canadians wanted to make, such as the effort to improve grain shipments from the West Coast and the concerns hog producers have over Japan’s pork import limits.
Time consuming
The minister’s presence, however, also increased protocol and ceremony, added to the number of speeches that had to be translated and imposed restrictions on the amount of time spent at each venue.
Many of the delegation’s thoughts were summarized by Zelik Bocknek, president of an Ontario distributor of halal meats, those produced under Muslim religious dietary rules.
He said for the first-time business traveller to Asia, the trade mission would be a good experience. All the travel arrangements were handled by government staff, there was the comfort of traveling in a group of like-minded people and the itinerary provided a good introduction to markets in Japan and Indonesia.
But for the experienced Asian business traveler, it would be better to travel alone when trade staff at embassies and consular offices can devote more time to an individual business’s needs, Bocknek said.
