Initiatives Prince George, like all in the Canadian trade sector, had been traditionally frustrated by trade barriers set up by China to keep Canada's beef from crossing their borders. IPG and their partner groups saw huge potential in that export commodity years ago, but China's exclusion of Canadian beef made it a moot point.
Not anymore. On Canada Day, a special celebration was held at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 event. In ceremonial fashion, Chinese and Canadian dignitaries supped on a meal of barbecued Canadian beef and pork to mark the end of that exclusion.
"We'd like to thank our Chinese friends for allowing a special shipment of beef for our Canada Day celebrations, as we work to complete our agreement for staged full market access," said federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "Canada is the first (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) BSE-affected country to receive any beef access to China in almost a decade and this landmark agreement will help ensure a bright future for the Canadian beef industry by getting our safe, high-quality beef back on Chinese store shelves."
It was an outbreak of BSE in 2003 that caused China, and all other nations of the world, to halt all Canadian beef trade. Canada's cattle industry invested in BSE safeguards that now make this nation's beef some of the safest and best-tracked in the world.
China's recognition of this put all that potential into play.
"The Port of Prince Rupert has done some work looking at the back-haul options for beef out of northern B.C.," said Kathie Scouten of IPG. "That work is a few years old now, and involves more than just beef from Western Canada but the beef opportunities were considered particularly good aside from the trade barriers that were in place.
"IPG and the Prince George Airport Authority have been looking at the opportunities for back-haul for air cargo as well," Scouten said. "Those shipping containers are going back empty, and the same is true for the air cargo. There is a chance there that has generated a lot of interest for northern B.C., so this is great news that they (a local beef industry contingent) are out there developing markets and we will be working with them to provide logistical options."
An agriculture representative was on the very first IPG-organized trade mission to China in 2008 and IPG held talks as recently as one month ago with local cattlemen on future pursuits. Tim McEwan met most recently with Roland Baumann, a rancher from Vanderhoof who is past-president of the B.C. Cattlemen's Association and sits on the Canadian Beef Export Federation. Baumann is one of the members of the trade mission leaving for China and Japan this week. Members of that group have pointed to the northern B.C. trade missions to China and the success already being seen there in the lumber industry as the reason they are now stepping into face-to-face meetings in the Orient.
"We are absolutely thrilled that our local businesses are taking up the opportunity in the leadership already being undertaken to open up the Chinese market," Scouten said. "Kudos to them to take part in this kind of trade delegation, because it is very likely to produce results."
See related story on page 4.
