Thank you for travelling here to get to know our industry a little better.
I represent the Centre d'expertise en production ovine du Québec, the CEPOQ, which is thus concerned with sheep production in Canada.
To give you a brief profile, there are nearly one million ewes in Canada, and Quebec has approximately one-quarter of that number. We are the second largest producer after Ontario. We monitor each other very closely because, at the start of the year, we were number one. Sheep production is highly intensive in the eastern part of the country.
You should also know that we are spoiled in Quebec. As a result of a reversal of the situation, we now have a research centre. Ten years ago, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which had a research farm at La Pocatière, decided to withdraw from those operations. So, in order not to miss the opportunity to work on improving their production, producers joined forces and went looking for partners, including François Castonguay, an AAFC researcher, as well as people from the federal government to create the Centre d'expertise en production ovine. They were able to take over the facilities from AAFC, which assigned them to the Centre de développement bioalimentaire du Québec.
CEPOQ has been working in sheep production for 10 years. We have set ourselves the mission of improving the profitability of sheep farm businesses in Quebec. In the past few years, there has been an openness on the part of other Canadian provinces as well as a number of partnerships.
We are a very small team of some 10 persons. We essentially have people who have training in agronomy, masters-level research, veterinarians and agricultural technicians. We also have a research herd of approximately 350 head, which has been improved over the past 10 years for research purposes.
With a small team, we have no choice but to develop all kinds of partnerships in order to tap into outside expertise that will enable us somewhat to broaden our aims and increase the potential impact for our sector. We've worked very closely with the people from AAFC, MAPAQ and universities. The main and most frequently recurring collaborative efforts are with the University of Guelph and Laval University. We are currently working on implementing a genetics project with the University of Nova Scotia. In short we are developing various partnerships.
As for CEPOQ's board of directors, AAFC and MAPAQ are members along with producers representing the producer associations.
In recent years, AAFC has somewhat withdrawn from sheep production research, but not completely. On the other hand, as regards investment in sheep production, particularly for research—which concerns me—in the organization I work for, there is very little direct participation in the furtherance of our work.
I must emphasize that the investments in the Conseil pour le développement de l'agriculture du Québec, the CDAQ, which supports research projects, makes an enormous contribution to sheep production. We are lucky to have a number of projects in partnership with that agency, which receives federal funding. In that sense, the federal government is active in sheep production. However, as far as direct support goes, through the same kind of partnerships as the one we have with MAPAQ, there is very little intervention.
In addition, in recent years, Quebec and Ontario have developed a breeding program called GenOvis. A somewhat awkward parallel can be drawn with Quebec's dairy herds analysis program, the PATLQ.
The idea of the GenOvis breeding program is to take production data from Quebec farms and use them to guide selection decisions for the herd so as to improve the performance of our animals. So, as I was saying earlier, Quebec and Ontario have made major investments in recent years to develop this breeding program.
Last year, AAFC provided financial support to the Canadian Sheep Breeders' Association, the CSBA, thus permitting the expansion and opening of the program to all Canadian provinces. However, the project wound up last March.
We have a national breeding program that is internationally recognized. We've been invited to the World Sheep and Wool Congress, which will be held in Mexico next July. We're going to present our new breeding program, which is the envy of a number of other nations, as well as sheep production in Canada. These are market openings for us. This leadership in breeding is one aspect that enables us to get our foot in the door. At the same time, we take advantage of these opportunities to present our industry, our agriculture. Morocco has also shown interest and raised questions concerning our breeding program. This is a tool that gives us some international outreach, and that enables us to go beyond mere genetics to talk about our agriculture in a broader sense.
The project is completed, and Quebec and Ontario won't be able to hold this program out to the other provinces for very long, since it's the provincial governments, in part, and the producers of those provinces that are funding it. So there is definitely a need for financial involvement by the federal government to ensure this national breeding program is maintained and developed.
In addition, the Quebec market covers barely 50% of total sheep products consumption here in the country. So there is enormous room for our production to develop. The problem is that we're fighting some major players, New Zealand in particular, and Australia. Incredible sums of money are invested in research and development in those countries. They are advancing very quickly. Historically, we have always had an advantage over frozen products entering Canada. However, with research and development in recent years, they have managed to develop methods for supplying fresh products. By “fresh”, we mean products that are not frozen. These are products from animals that have been slaughtered several weeks earlier. That's a bit scary in itself because those products are now entering Canada by the cargo load.
We are a small industry that offers a not negligible agricultural alternative for the support of Canada's regions, and we are facing a player with financial resources that are slightly unbalanced relative to ours.
In that sense, as I mentioned earlier, CDAQ is giving us a big hand, and that's extremely appreciated. That has enabled us to develop research products for improving the quality of our products, for production techniques and to improve the efficiency of Canadian and Quebec farms. However, investment would be welcome in order to step up the pace somewhat and to be able to stand up to the competition which is coming on at a fast pace.
So, to simplify, we can say that sheep production needs are very great. If we don't want to lose our credibility, special attention must be paid to priorities and breeding, particularly for the GenOvis program. That program must be improved and consolidated. Lastly, our businesses must clearly be supported in their development and consolidation in the area of research.