Calgary, AB – The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) welcomes news of $1 million in AgriMarketing support for Canada’s meat industry, as announced this morning by Member of Parliament Chris Bittle.
The funding, allocated to the Canadian Meat Council (CMC), will enable the CMC, CCA and the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) to undertake collaborative and targeted activities to strengthen and pave the way for further diversification of markets for Canadian beef and pork products. Such activities will include strengthening international trade relationships with foreign industry partners, providing expertise for global trade missions, and inspection visits by international officials to Canadian processing facilities to demonstrate food safety requirements.
The CCA thanks the Government of Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau for the funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriMarketing program. The ability to sell beef and beef by-products into the markets willing to pay the most for them is crucial to maximizing the value of each animal produced in Canada.
In 2018, Canada’s beef industry exported $2.75 billion (398,580 tonnes) of beef, representing 38 per cent of domestic slaughter. This is a new record high in beef export value. Canada exported 597,500 tonnes of beef and cattle valued at $3.7 billion in 2018, representing 44 per cent of beef production (including live slaughter cattle exported).
The Canadian beef industry represents the second largest single source of farm cash receipts, with cash receipts from cattle and calves totaling $9.4 billion annually over the last five years (2014-18 average), representing 16 per cent of total farm cash receipts, contributing $18 billion to GDP annually, and generating an estimated 228,000 jobs in Canada, with every job in the sector yielding another 3.56 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Source : Canadian Cattlemen’s Association