Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister
Lawrence MacAulay today announced an investment of up to $6.4 million over
three years to help Canadian Beef increase global consumer demand and loyalty
for the Canadian Beef brand.
He said “this strategic initiative
will support Canadian Beef’s three-year market development and promotion plan
targeting key regional hubs in Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.
“This investment builds on” the opening
of expanded trade with “Mexico, Ukraine, South Korea and Taiwan, while the
Country of Origin Labelling law was successfully repealed giving Canadian Beef
full access to the United States,” he said by way of a news release.
The timing of the export push comes
in the midst of the low point in the cycle of beef production and relatively
high Canadian supermarket beef prices.
Canada’s beef farmers were hard hit
by an export ban because an Alberta cow died of Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy and then the U.S. Country-of-Origin Labeling law that depressed
Canadian cattle prices.
That prompted farmers to sharply cull
their herds to near-record-low numbers.
One could wish the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had been more vigilant about what goes into livestock feeds so we had never experienced a case of BSE.
