I asked for the PDF file, wonderful reading for anyone interested in the Australian beef industry.
One statement stood out for me. Australia views the U.S. and Canadian markets as one as they are so integrated. As Canadian producers we have a Jekyll and Hyde view of our market. On one hand we jump up and down and insist that we are in a North American market, the next moment we are a Canadian market looking to export globally. I tend to think we are in a North American market, for better or worse.
Canadian producers like to think we are an important beef exporting nation. We can produce statistics that suggest we are the fifth, possibly the fourth largest beef exporter in the world, approximately equal to New Zealand. We tend to forget we are also the world’s ninth largest beef importing nation in the world, importing about the same amount of beef as S. Korea and Mexico. The fact of the matter is if we consider that we are part of a North American beef market and the movement of NAFTA beef between U.S. and Canada and now Mexico, both North and South, are not imports/exports per se, just movement of beef within an integrated marketplace then Canada is not even on the radar screen when it comes to beef exports.
Now I have looked to Australia for almost 10 years and thought that is how it is done and I wish we were doing that. And what they are doing is impressive, after all they are a major beef exporting nation. But I have come to the conclusion that Canada is just a beef exporting nation wannabe. We are like a 2 year old toddler that wants to play with the big boys but we are still in diapers. And now we have BSE and diapers, messy ones at that. The fact of the matter is even before BSE Canada imported more non-NAFTA beef, mostly from Australia, than it exported beef to all non-NAFTA nations combined.
One statement stood out for me. Australia views the U.S. and Canadian markets as one as they are so integrated. As Canadian producers we have a Jekyll and Hyde view of our market. On one hand we jump up and down and insist that we are in a North American market, the next moment we are a Canadian market looking to export globally. I tend to think we are in a North American market, for better or worse.
Canadian producers like to think we are an important beef exporting nation. We can produce statistics that suggest we are the fifth, possibly the fourth largest beef exporter in the world, approximately equal to New Zealand. We tend to forget we are also the world’s ninth largest beef importing nation in the world, importing about the same amount of beef as S. Korea and Mexico. The fact of the matter is if we consider that we are part of a North American beef market and the movement of NAFTA beef between U.S. and Canada and now Mexico, both North and South, are not imports/exports per se, just movement of beef within an integrated marketplace then Canada is not even on the radar screen when it comes to beef exports.
Now I have looked to Australia for almost 10 years and thought that is how it is done and I wish we were doing that. And what they are doing is impressive, after all they are a major beef exporting nation. But I have come to the conclusion that Canada is just a beef exporting nation wannabe. We are like a 2 year old toddler that wants to play with the big boys but we are still in diapers. And now we have BSE and diapers, messy ones at that. The fact of the matter is even before BSE Canada imported more non-NAFTA beef, mostly from Australia, than it exported beef to all non-NAFTA nations combined.
Comment