Three-year strategy focuses on trade, regulation, advocacy and preparing Canada’s meat sector for future challenges.
Canada’s red meat processing sector has a new three-year strategy aimed at strengthening its competitiveness as meat companies navigate changing trade relationships, regulatory pressures and an increasingly complicated global marketplace.
The Canadian Meat Council (CMC) has released "Quality the World Trusts: Securing the Competitiveness of Canada’s Meat Value Chain", its strategic plan covering 2026 through 2029.
Developed with the CMC Board of Directors and senior leadership team, the strategy outlines how the organization intends to support and advocate for Canada’s federally licensed red meat packers and processors.
The plan could also have implications further upstream. A competitive processing sector plays an important role in maintaining domestic slaughter capacity and market opportunities for Canadian cattle and hog producers.
“This plan sets a clear direction for the Canadian Meat Council and the work we will do on behalf of Canada’s red meat industry over the next three years,” said Kyle Larkin, President and CEO of the Canadian Meat Council.
“Our focus is on strengthening the CMC, ensuring the industry’s story is heard through coordinated advocacy and engagement, and better preparing our members to navigate an increasingly complex policy, regulatory and trade environment.”
Three priorities for Canada’s meat industry
The strategic plan centres on three broad directions.
First, CMC intends to strengthen the Council itself through deeper member engagement, membership growth and improved communication with both industry members and the public.
Second, the organization plans to strengthen how the red meat industry communicates its story, presenting a more coordinated voice on issues affecting the sector.
The third priority focuses on preparing for future challenges. CMC says this will involve stronger evidence-based policy ideas, a proactive policy agenda and crisis coordination measures established before they are needed.
The Council’s new strategy defines its mission as advocating for its members to secure and improve Canada’s global meat competitiveness.
It also identifies competitive access to Canadian and international markets and an internationally competitive regulatory system as important components of that work.
A $35-billion industry
The size of Canada's red meat industry means changes in processing competitiveness can have consequences throughout the agricultural supply chain.
CMC describes the industry in its new strategic plan as the largest component of Canada's food processing sector, generating $35 billion in annual economic output and supporting more than 250,000 jobs across the red meat supply chain.
More broadly, food and beverage processing is Canada's largest manufacturing industry by both GDP and employment. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reports that food and beverage processing contributed $35.1 billion to Canadian GDP and supported 346,400 jobs in 2025.
For cattle and hog producers, the processing sector represents the critical connection between livestock production and domestic and international meat customers.
Exports are particularly important.
In 2025, Canada exported approximately 46.8 per cent of its beef production. When beef and live cattle exports are combined, about 59 per cent of total Canadian beef and cattle production was exported.
Pork is even more export dependent, making continued access to international markets an important consideration for hog producers, processors and the broader value chain.
Export markets underline need for competitiveness
Canadian red meat continues to generate billions of dollars in international sales.
Through September 2026, Canadian beef and veal exports were valued at approximately $4.48 billion, up 16.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2025.
The United States remained by far the largest destination, accounting for approximately $3.29 billion of that total. China, Mexico and Japan were also significant markets.
Canadian pork exports reached approximately $4.20 billion through September. The United States accounted for about $1.46 billion, followed closely by Japan at $1.31 billion. Mexico, South Korea and China were also major destinations.
Those figures illustrate why trade policy is closely linked to processing-sector competitiveness.
Changes in tariffs, foreign market access, inspection requirements or other non-tariff barriers can affect processors, but their impact can ultimately work its way back to livestock producers through processing demand and market access.
CMC's strategy therefore calls for competitive access for Canadian meat within Canada and in international markets of interest.
Regulation remains a key issue
Regulatory competitiveness is another major component of the Council’s mandate.
CMC says it intends to advocate for a regulatory environment that allows Canada's meat industry to remain internationally competitive while maintaining high standards for food safety, animal welfare and sustainable production.
That challenge extends beyond simply reducing regulation.
Canadian meat companies compete with processors in the United States and other major meat-producing countries. Requirements that significantly increase domestic processing costs can become a competitive concern when international competitors operate under different regulatory systems.
At the same time, food safety, traceability and Canada’s international reputation are important to maintaining customer confidence and export market access.
Balancing those objectives will be one of the issues facing the Council and its members over the next three years.
Preparing before the next crisis
One notable element of the strategy is its emphasis on preparation.
CMC proposes developing evidence-based policy positions and a proactive policy agenda rather than responding only after regulatory or political issues emerge.
The Council also wants crisis coordination mechanisms established in advance.
That preparation could prove important in a sector susceptible to animal disease outbreaks, border disruptions, labour challenges and sudden changes in international trade conditions.
“Our members are a diverse group of businesses, but they share a common goal: to provide Canadians and global customers with safe, high-quality meat,” said Dr. Sylvain Fournaise, Chair of the CMC Board of Directors.
“For more than a century, the Canadian Meat Council has served as the national voice of Canada’s red meat processing sector.”
Fournaise said the new plan builds on that history while providing direction for how the Council will strengthen the organization, advance industry interests and support long-term competitiveness.
Why the plan matters to livestock producers
Although the strategy was developed specifically around the needs of federally licensed meat packers and processors, processing competitiveness and farm-level competitiveness are closely connected.
Canadian cattle and hog producers need reliable processing capacity and access to customers willing to purchase their livestock. Processing companies, in turn, depend on competitive supplies of Canadian animals and the ability to sell meat domestically and internationally.
The significant proportion of Canadian beef and pork destined for markets outside Canada makes maintaining export access especially important.
Over the next three years, trade relationships, regulatory costs, labour availability, animal health risks and processing capacity could all influence the strength of that relationship.
CMC’s new strategy signals that it intends to take a more proactive approach to those challenges, with the broader goal of protecting Canada's reputation as a reliable supplier of safe, high-quality meat.