Martin Rice, who retired earlier this year after 30 years as Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council, was presented with the Canadian Meat Council's 2016 President's Award last week.
“Initially it was fairly cautious about a Canada U.S. trade deal,” Rice said during his FarmScape Online interview. ”From that point forward I think the industry has clearly seen its interest in having a heavy involvement in trade and taking advantage of what is an enormously favorable production situation, production advantages that Canada has.”
Rice says the U.S. Canada trade negotiations in the late 1980's were crucial in that they caused the pork industry to focus on its trade interests.
“We've got an excellent animal health situation and, without a good animal health status, it's impossible to be successful in the world pork industry,” Rice added. ”Our status would be, certainly, among the top two or three in the world. But we also have excellent genetics, excellent quality and an excellent situation in terms of feed stuffs.”
Rice acknowledges Canada has a solid trade reputation around the world which may not guarantee export success per se, but still opens doors for opportunities Pork industry, much less agriculture, can take advantage of.
“Our grains and oilseeds supply is also world competitive so it enables us to have a very good set of circumstances from an economics, food safety and animal health point of view,” he added. “We do have well developed and well regarded food safety standards.”
Rice acknowledges it's not clear whether some key trade agreements will get implemented and that the industry will need to keep a close watch on what happens with the TPP, but he does see opportunities for expanding trade in the longer term.
Source: Meatbusiness