We see a major linkage between business risk management programs and market development. Certainly market development and safety nets work together to foster a strong and profitable Canadian soybean industry. Those initiatives help build a long-term profitable industry. There's a lot of new product development, new food, and industrial uses, and domestic and export market development. The safety nets are the backstop there that provide that market stability until potential market development can be realized.
Our member organizations--Ontario Soybean Growers, the Quebec growers, and Manitoba Pulse--have been very active in market development initiatives such as developing relationships with potential buyers in Asia, for soy foods, biodiesel, bioplastics, and industrial linkage. Those safety nets provides very stable supplies for our processors, and with dramatic changes in prices we also see those large shifts in supplies.
It's critical to point out that soybeans are a key feedstock in the bioeconomy. Certainly there are a lot of us who have a vested interest in that, through government and grower organizations. Renewable fuels and other opportunities are only a part of the longer-term solution. We see that there is no silver bullet to fix the whole problem. There are many different opportunities that we'd have to pursue to move that on. So we see that a linkage to domestic production is very critical. Any agrifood products branded as Canadian should be produced from Canadian-grown feedstocks. We see regional solutions that are required for all pillars of the APF, especially BRM. Eastern Canada grows soybeans for agronomic reasons, and needs a program that is regional in nature, just as the western provinces need regional flexibility for some of the crops that they grow.
We also see the connection between trade and safety nets as well. As we pursue trade efforts, we need those safety nets as a bridge. Trade is critical for a long-term soybean industry in Canada. The Canadian Soybean Council supports freer, fairer, and open international trade. We're not in favour of unilaterally reducing Canadian business risk management programs prior to other nations' doing so. We certainly see that utilizing business risk management is very critical to complement all of the other APF pillars that the government has put forward. We see many opportunities within those pillars to move our industry forward. The soybean industry has been very innovative over the years, and we continue to look at innovation as our means of moving forward, while having that backstop of business risk management programs in place.
Again, we reinforce the need to have business risk management programs that are commodity specific, have regional flexibility, and are bankable and predictable.
Thank you.