The Canadian Pork Council suggests, in the face of stable North American consumption, it’s important for the Canadian pork industry to continue its focus on sales opportunities in non-NAFTA countries.
Last year Canadian pork set new records in terms of both the volume and value of its exports.
While exports to the United States, Canada’s largest export market, declined sales to other key markets, most notably Japan and South Korea increased dramatically.
Canadian Pork Council President Clare Schlegel suggests, with demand in Canada and the U.S. holding stable, we’ll definitely need to see sales continue to rise in countries beyond North America.
“Support is vital. We need a successful WTO round from a Canadian perspective,” said Schlegel in a recent interview. “Market access is absolutely critical and the lowering of tariffs into some of these countries. We know that some of our competitors are working very diligently on free trade agreements, bilateral agreements between two countries.”
He said one example is where both the United States and Chile would get preferential access over Canadian product, a definite problem for Canada. Thirdly, the industry needs continued support from the Canadian government, especially from the embassies abroad, and trade promotion programs.
We need to increase the desirability and presence of the Canadian image, particularly in markets around the world where we’re selling through to retail.
“There are exciting possibilities, particularly in Korea and maybe even in Mexico where we can increase our sales opportunity by increasing the Canadian brand and the Canadian presence,” said Schlegel. Last year’s strong performance is a clear indication we’re putting out a desirable, consistent, and tasty product. I congratulate the industry on its achievements.
Number two on the program today is Steve Paszkiewicz, Agronomy Research Scientist.
We’re back in the presentation room here at Pioneer. Today is research day. Lots of information about the research work that’s going on.
Our final presentation of today here at the Pioneer event is being given by Thomas West, VP, Biotech Affairs & Business Support. It’s Thomas’ job to work on biotech regulatory acceptance around the world. I’m assuming this means he’s got some serious frequent flyer miles.
After a short break this afternoon we got our virtual tour of the Pioneer Hawaii Research Station. Our presenters are Steven Lupkes, Coordinator and Cindy Goldstein, Outreach Manager. They are “online” with us on a two-way video/audio hookup. They’re talking about how and why they do research in Hawaii and the benefits and challenges it represents.
Right behind the Pioneer Carver Center is a very pretty little pond which is totally frozen at the moment. I could see the geese through the window of the presentation room we’re in and had to take a quick shot of them before it gets too late.
Presentation number two here at Pioneer is a tag team with Kyle Whitaker, Marketing Manager, who just got finished (pictured here) and Murt McLeod, Agronomy Research Scientist.
Murt’s taking now and he’s focusing on Herculex RW Research and describing the experimental design testing they’ve conducted. I’m recording the presentation and will decide later if it’s something to post. I will also try to get interviews with both these guys if time permits and post them later.
Since this is a “media” event then there’s got to be some media. Well here we are (I’m behind the camera). It’s a pretty good group of web/broadcast/print media representatives. I think it’s interesting that you can hear 6 different computers clicking away!
The first presentation here at the Pioneer event is with Bill Kuhn, Research Director. Bill is talking about new technologies and how Pioneer is bringing those solutions to market. Before we got started I interviewed Bill about these new technologies and what their goal is in bringing the media here today. I also asked him what he thought about blogging his research so producers can follow along with him as he creates the products they’ll be using in the future.