That's okay, Chair. I know you were thinking of me. I wasn't going to raise a fuss.
Gentlemen, thank you for being here. There's no question that the pork industry is facing challenges today. One of the things I would like to do in my opening comments is underline some of the support government is giving to pork producers. You had already mentioned it, but I'll just mention it for my colleagues on the other side, because they forget this type of information. In 2007 and 2008, over $1 billion is projected to flow to livestock producers through these new BRM programs. That would include the AgriInvest kickstart payments. That's a thousand million dollars. It's significant money.
Of course, you mentioned the advanced payments program. Some $563 million has been advanced to cattle and hog producers in the 2008-09 production period and $406 million of this was in emergency advances. Of course, now there's the extension. There's significant money flowing, but in fact, this does not solve all the problems the hog industry is facing, and I acknowledge that. However, I did want to run through the numbers for my colleagues, because they do forget the work that's actually being done and the money that's actually being delivered on the ground.
One of the things both your organizations spoke about was the importance of international markets. I would like to pick up on that a little bit. Minister Ritz has been extremely busy internationally, opening these new markets. I believe Canada Pork International was in India with the minister. I wanted to ask you about the Indian market. Let me just ask you a few general questions.
One of them is this. How important is export, in your eyes, to the hog industry? Secondly, specifically about India, how do you measure that breakthrough in India? What do you see as the future for pork through this new market opportunity?