Japanese Financing

[intr3est]

Thought I'd start this idea, I mentioned it once on another thread, but not many comments were posted afterwards. To BIG members? Have the Japanese been approached about building/funding a slaughter plant in Canada and having control over testing etc.? I would think that they might be interested in having some control over the production of the finished product and skip a few middle men in the process. The Canadian government might just go for an idea like this also. Just a thought. Murman

[rkaiser]

So many negotiations going on right now, and most are very much behind closed doors. I have heard of at least two groups courting the Japanese, but have no details.

As far as BIG C is concerned, the best I can do is tell you that there has been three meetings over the past few months with the Japanese Embasy in Edmonton. These are not businessmen, but certainly have lots of connection to home. More conversation is planned, but little in the way of direct deal making.

I know that this is not much to peak any more than your interest, intr3est, but it is all I have for now. The Japanese Embasy is moving to Calgary, and the boys at the office have really taken a shine to Cam, Doug, and co.

Hope to have more soon.
Randy

[intr3est]

Thanks rkaiser again, sometimes the wheels are slow, but they keeping rolling. Are you hearing anything about our new plant starting up here in Ontario? Small for you Western boys, but another plant for 500 per week is good news for us. Haven't been able to find out much about ownership etc. but there was some talk about the Koreans being interested in financing a plant in the exact county where it is being built. I believe it will be for finished animals.

[Bez]

What new plant in Ontario?

Details please.

Bez

[intr3est]

i heard today that htis plant in ON. is speculative, but here is one press release. I have since found out also , that some Koreans might be involved with this one.

The Kent Cattlemen's Association is awaiting approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to begin construction of a $15 million U.S. beef processing plant that is expected to slaughter 600 to 800 cattle per week.

The exact site, in the area of Chatham, Ontario, has been selected, as has an architectural firm, but other details are not being released until CFIA grants approval. At that time, the owners will open bids for a general contractor.

The owner is listed as Frank Byrne.

[farmers_son]

I am very concerned when I hear suggestions about having the Japanese come into Canada and establish testing protocols. Sometimes the gods punish us by granting our wishes.

I believe our testing protocols should be established by the Canadian government in harmony with the U.S. as we continue to reestablish a North American beef industry. The protocols for testing beef destined for Japan are being determined by international negotiation and I expect will be finalized in the next few months. I do not support Japan or any nation coming into our industry and establishing testing protocols and food safety guidelines unilaterally.

I know some will say, without any thought whatsoever, that the customer is always right. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You do not allow the customer to come into your industry and make the rules. Those rules need to be established by us, the producers and government, internationally by the OIE and WTO. Certainly not unilaterally by Japan.

Just imagine how letting the customer make the rules can be abused. Japan unilaterally and unfairly insists on 100% testing from countries Japan targets for whatever reason Japan decides, without any scientific justification. Japan is a major beef importer. That country and that country’s cattle producers and beef industry, even if it is United States much less Canada, is dramatically impacted. That country’s industry is held hostage letting Japan enter that industry and buy under duress some or all of the domestic packing industry, possibly other parts of the supply chain as well. Beef trade resumes to Japan along with the profits from packing that beef. Japan makes the rules and the domestic industry looses control over their food production, certainly their food safety guidelines. Meanwhile the producers and national government bear the full impact and cost of whatever actions the Japanese take in that country.

The rules for trade between countries need to be based on science, not consumer whims, political posturing or worse blatantly unfair and aggressive business practices by foreign powers. As a medium power trading nation Canada must insist upon science in matters of international trade or all of us will fall victim to unfair and unreasonable actions by countries such as Japan.

These comments would apply to the unfair actions by the U.S. government towards Canada since May 20 as well as the actions of Japan. When countries impose trade sanctions not based upon science it not a matter of the customer is always right. Rather it is a vicious, unfair, protectionist, aggressive attack upon that country and its producers. We can never allow that to happen. It is not in our best interest to give in to Japan or those forces in the U.S. that wish to see trade between our countries restricted with no basis in science or fact.

[farmers_son]

I agree with you farmers_son. Imagine if every industry allowed various countries to set their own testing parameters and regulations. In Alberta that would be a disaster. We have regulatory bodies for various industries eg: EUB, EAB, NRCB, all of whom are responsible for administering Provincial Regulations. Would we add the responsibility to administer regulations put forth by various countries to their mandates> ? It would get very cumbersome in my opinion. I feel that we should work with various countries to ensure that our testing paramters provide them with a comfort level which will give them confidence in our product but they should not be allowed to set up shop in Canada for the purpose of telling us how to monitor our own industry.

[grassfarmer]

That makes a lot of sense farmers_son but when you state: "The rules for trade between countries need to be based on science, not consumer whims, political posturing or worse blatantly unfair and aggressive business practices by foreign powers."
Does the last part refer to a situation like Japan investing here or to our current mess created by US based Corporations?

[jensend]

every fear that farmers_son has of the japanese has already come to bear from the americans. they have essentially expropriated the canadian beef industry by closing the border to normal exports. the american packer presence has become total control by using usda to close the border and in such a way as to close other countries borders to us by blocking universal testing. with every positive that we find the perception that canada is a bse country grows stronger. we are going to have to deal with this perception by instilling consumer confidence here and in other countries by meeting their requirements. a few more positives and it won't matter whether or not we're minimal risk; we'll start to lose canadian consumption, not just demand. we are a bse nation; let's get on with life and sell some beef.

[rkaiser]

Seems a bit of overconcern to me. Either you test or you don't test. What other protocal are we to be afraid of.

As some of you may know, I believe that BSE is brought on by some sort of metal contamination as per the Mark Purdey theory, and therefore also believe that testing is basically a moot point.

And yes, in this particular case, I beleive that the customer is right. Not right by means of science, but right by having a Japanese consumer consumed with fear brought on by media hype over feed transmission and species leaping of BSE. 10,000 Mark Purdey's would have a tough time changing this ingrained world attitude, and thus, TEST for BSE to gain their confidence.

As far as bowing to more pressure from foreign investors farmer-son, what other things do you mean?

[grassfarmer]

And still we pursue the contaminated feed theory nonsense - comments by Gary Little, a senior veterinarian at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the current BSE case investigation:

"The chances the investigation will find another cow from the same farm with mad cow disease are small, Little said, because cases are not usually found in clusters.

"Experiences with BSE throughout the world have shown that finding multiple cases of BSE in a single birth cohort is rare,"

In other words - it's in the feed so we'll check the herdmates but know we won't find further cases there... Doh! sound science?

[jensend]

isn't it astonishing that scientists can ignore so much evidence if it tends to disprove their pet theory? i have often wondered why whole herds and cohorts haven't tested positive if the feed transmission theory is valid. if the theory is valid the prion certainly isn't very transmissible or we would have seen huge numbers of infected animals and humans. i hope that some involved in the research of this disease will be able to discover the very beginning stages of the condition so that it can be better understood.

[topper]

I also wonder if feed is the problem how come we don't see more animals that where fed the same feed come down with the disease. I wonder how under Purdey's theory why more animals in the same group don't test positive for bse. Maybe I missed something but if purdeys theory where correct wouldn't you expect that more of these animals subjected to organophospates would test positive for bse. Maybe somebody could explain this to me.

[Horse]

Jensend Im with you what will we acomplish by trading the U>S>A> for the Japanese sounds like same shit diferent pile.

[intr3est]

Farmers_son
I'd like to get back to the comment you made about testing being science based. If we believe that Japan has already tested an animal UTM and found BSE, then the public has already been exposed to science that makes it possible. The best way to get around this is to test everything. As far as I know we have been using the same or better protocols as the US for some years now, with a few changes after the first case.(in both countries) If we were using an even more strigent testing policy, we as Canadian producers would have even more markets available to us.