Good afternoon everyone.
Fumoir La Fée des Grèves is a seafood processing plant located in the Quebec City area. The smokehouse was established in 1994 by my brother and I, Marin and Nicolas Letenneur. We are French immigrants trained in the preparation of high-quality food.
We went into business as soon as we arrived in Canada. While we had few resources, we had a lot of potential. Since our company was created in 1994, we have taken part in a number of international fairs, and each time our products are recognized as among the best smoked salmon in the world. Their subtle maple flavour—distinctively Canadian—wins universal acclaim every time. Our smokehouse methods have attracted a great deal of interest from investors. Quality control is the cornerstone of this Canadian technique.
Smoked salmon is consumed worldwide, but also produced in nearly every country. In most countries, import duties are very high, preventing us from being competitive and selling our products in large quantities there. We have been making high-quality products at our Quebec City plant for 20 years now using our unique recipes and techniques, which are recognized throughout the province.
We are also becoming increasingly known internationally and in various food, restaurant, retail and industrial markets. We always intended to bring our company into the international market. To prepare ourselves, we've learned and invested a lot to meet the industry's highest standards. Since cold-smoked salmon is everywhere, in both industrialized and developing countries, we quickly identified numerous business opportunities for our company.
Given the challenges we faced in exporting our products, we thought about practical ways of establishing ourselves internationally. This strategic thinking led us to the opportunities for technology transfers. Thanks to federal government assistance under the industrial cooperation program and with the help of a specialized company, we created a marketable product in the form of an industrial franchise.
We were invited to Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, where the franchise idea was very well-received, and we worked on technology transfer projects with potentially serious partners.
The first technology transfer we undertook through the industrial cooperation program was on the island of Bali. Once the initial steps were taken, we began implementing the minimum standards required for the local market, with the goal of ultimately meeting the hazard analysis and critical control points—or HACCP—and global food safety initiative—or GFSI—the highest food production standards that allow for exporting. The Bali plant was on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, but today, thanks to this project, it is doing much better and is producing several dozen tons of smoked salmon for the Indonesian market. We subsequently hired additional staff at our Quebec City plant to monitor the progress in Bali.
At the same time, we visited Japan to evaluate the idea of supplying that country from Bali. Given the customs benefits of free trade between these two nations, we immediately saw a terrific opportunity to expand.
Right before the final phase of the technology transfer in Bali, the third in a three-part program, the industrial cooperation program was suddenly shut down, breaking our momentum. Our file had been on hold for several months and was about to be approved. Without government support, we could not take the risk of investing so much money, even though we knew the Asian market was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Economically speaking, technology transfer is a very good way for small and medium-sized businesses to expand internationally. It is financially viable, the risks are limited and the difficulties that arise are manageable. We are evidence of that. In addition to Indonesia and Japan, we had requests from Singapore and South Korea, assuring us of a favourable market.
Currently, we are doing a technology transfer in the Middle East. We will not be receiving a share of the profits, other than through royalties.
The industrial cooperation program is an indispensable engine for prosperity for small and medium-sized businesses on the international market. Support from federal and provincial governments is also essential for us to operate internationally. Today's small and medium-sized businesses are tomorrow's multinationals, but they cannot get there without government support. That is why we would love to see the industrial cooperation program reinstated or a similar new program launched. This would enable us to complete our project in Indonesia and start others. Our business strategy is to set up on every continent and compete with major suppliers Norway and Chile, enabling Canada to take its rightful place in this rapidly growing market.
With each foreign project, we hire 5 to 10 more people—depending on project size—at our headquarters in Quebec City to monitor the technology transfer and ensure it is successful. Therefore, this kind of program is also terrific for job creation here in Canada.