There were a range of things. When we analyzed it, I think it looked at part of the issue but not the whole picture, as we talked about demand and the ability to satisfy those customers around the world. I'm not of the opinion any longer that there's such a thing with globalization as a domestic or export market. You have larger or smaller industries. That's essentially what you face.
Every time an animal is processed in Canada you're going to get the highest value for that animal by exporting certain parts of that animal around the world. If we weren't exporting those products we would just get lower value overall. As I mentioned, whether it's the tongues, livers—I didn't get into the offals, but there are clearly markets around the world that pay a much higher price for those products than we do—skirt meat, flank meat, a whole range of those, having access to move where there is ethnic demand that creates premiums for those products is extremely important to the value of every animal, and more importantly to the ability of our processors to remain in business.
Again, I mention each day to get competitive bidding--and this is the whole question back to competitiveness and captive supply. We saw in Ontario when Moyer's started to process product again. Suddenly we went from about a minus 15, a negative basis, up to a plus 2 or plus 3 basis. That was about $180 a head, because it became more competitive around the bidding.
To the question of getting those markets open and reducing some of the regulatory burden to go in there again, we believe that's extremely important. Every bit of that improves the value of every animal sold in Canada, and that really is going to be crucial to our future. So we strongly support every effort in moving ahead.
It's interesting. Last year we were taking a look at New Zealand and the emphasis they place both in their regulatory system and in their whole policy structure. Everyone you talked to, you could have sworn they had a pep talk about the importance of exports every morning, including their regulators. They're proud to go out and advocate their regulatory system everywhere. We have a constant struggle about whether a regulator can do that. Well, if we don't have good systems that we're prepared to brag about around the world, then we'd better make sure we do, and we're confident we do.
The U.S. may well be our largest market because it is the largest market in the world and we're the closest to it. Most countries are envious of our proximity. Is there more that we could do? I'm sure John has attended close to 25 meetings since September down there. We attend virtually every forum and we're in Washington every three to six weeks. We now spend close to $1 million a year down there on advocacy.
Quite frankly, it's not going to be easy with the new Democrat-controlled Congress. There are a number of them who are more interested in obstructing trade. But we've also met with a number of others who don't feel the same way. We believe we can work with them, but it's going to take an extraordinary effort over the next four years.