Evidence of meeting #12 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
9:25 a.m.
President, Kettle River Stockmen's Association
I completely see that point of view. We do have very safe product in Canada, and I'm proud of that fact. But with our BSE situation, I believe we're still at about 50% of the markets that are not open.
So there does come a point where, well, it's been seven years and the market's still aren't open, so are we killing ourselves with this, or are we actually still getting our markets open and getting back into that global market?
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
It's a good point, and I can assure you that we are opening markets. In fact, Minister Ritz was just in China.
In the last two years he's done tremendous work in terms of opening markets. Every time he travels, there's an announcement that follows that this country is now open to our pork, to our beef, to our crop farmers.
They're still being opened, I can assure you of it.
9:25 a.m.
Member, Board of Directors, Southern Interior Stockmen's Association, British Columbia Cattlemen's Association
If I could add one comment, I do appreciate the work that Minister Ritz has done in that regard. I think it's important and I think he's done a great job. Like the tree fruit people, it would be nice to know... We do import beef. You perhaps may not realize that simply because we export it does not mean we do not import it, and I think that beef should be held to the same standard, regardless of what that standard is.
I've seen cattle production in some of the major places we import from, and I can pretty much assure you that they do not hold to the same standards we do.
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Yes, you raise a good point. I actually want to come back to that, particularly on the fruit side.
One last thing I do want to talk about and ask you a question on is programming. It's always a challenge for governments because we're always trying for balance, for what I call a level playing field, which is something that farmers want, but they also want regional flexibility or commodity-based flexibility because no one program will satisfy the needs of every commodity.
With the federal government, basically our programming is focused on levelling the playing field, making sure that our programs apply to as many commodities as possible in an equal way across Canada. Provinces have a key role to play in what I call regional flexibility.
For example, you were mentioning Saskatchewan, Doug. The grass looks a little greener over there for beef farming. That's because of regional flexibility that the Saskatchewan government is focusing, for example, on beef farming. In Ontario there is very much a focus on supply management. Out here it might be more on horticulture, but some of this regional flexibility and some of these cost-of-production programs come from the province, not from the federal government. I did want to highlight that, but I am very interested in some of the numbers.
David, I think you were talking just about the apple industry and you were saying your cost of production is 22¢ per pound. I just want to confirm this.
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
When you sell your apples, you are getting about 13¢ a pound.
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right.
Just to give me an idea, over how long a period of time have apple growers been in that negative situation where the cost of production is higher than the cost of sale?
9:25 a.m.
As an Individual
It's been really bad in the last three years. One thing that really killed us was the Canadian dollar. Now it's up at par and about four or five years ago it was around 78¢ American or something like that, and that is a huge difference right there.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
What percentage of Okanagan apples, for example, are sold to Canadians? What is your domestic market versus your export market? Do you happen to know?
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
I don't know for the entire industry. Specially for our packing house the bulk of it is export because we rely on producing really high quality and going for more niche markets.
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
As an industry we are heavily focused on western Canada, probably out to Saskatchewan, being that far west, and then there are quite a few markets down into Mexico, California, and those areas as well. But I think they focus on western Canada because prices are probably the best in western Canada.
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
I believe it's western Canada and then western U.S., and a small portion is exported overseas.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right.
Do you know what the percentage of Canadian sales versus export sales would be?
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I'm just trying to get a feel for the impact of the dollar. If domestic sales are quite high, then the impact of the dollar would be less.
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
It's not so much that you're selling overseas or you're exporting. It's that the price is set in Washington state, because they're producing 100 million boxes and we're producing 2 million boxes. Washington state sets the price. A favourable exchange rate at $20 a box is actually $25 Canadian, and you have to take that price even if you're selling in western Canada.
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
It's also my understanding that most retail is priced in U.S. dollars. so the listing price that you're selling at is in U.S. dollars. Then when you convert it back to Canadian you're getting fewer Canadian dollars for the U.S. pricing. That is my understanding of how it works.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Your time has expired, Mr. Lemieux. We may get back to you.
Mr. Richards.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
Thank you.
We sure appreciate you all being here to share with us today your background and your experiences as young farmers.
I want to just touch a little bit on the topic that Mr. Lemieux just was talking about with exports. I understand that you really don't have some of the information concerning the fruit farming industry in terms of exactly what percentage of your industry is exporting and what is being used domestically, but maybe I can just get a little bit of background from you on your own particular operations.
I have to admit that, coming from Alberta, I don't know as much about your industry as I do about the beef industry. Mr. Fossen went to college in my riding. I'm familiar with cattle country but not so familiar with the food industry, so I'd like to just hear a little bit more about it.
I know you can't share with us today the statistics on what percentage is export and what percentage is consumed here domestically, but maybe in terms of your own farms or your own orchards help me to understand where your product is sold. Who do you sell to? Is it a distributor? What percentage from your own farm or your own orchard is sold here in Canada, and what percentage is sold in the United States or elsewhere?
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
I can start.
My soft fruit—cherries, nectarines, apricots—are sold 100% here in Canada. The peddlers, the fruit salesmen, have connections with produce managers and smaller retail firms. They come to my farm and buy 10,000 pounds of cherries and then take them out to Alberta or Saskatchewan.
My apples go to our packing house. The packing house doesn't actually sell the fruit but contracts out to a broker, who then has connections with different clients. For us specifically, varieties like McIntosh and Royal Gala tend to stay here in Canada. I know that the Mexicans seem to like our Golden Delicious and Red Delicious, so all of those go down to Mexico. The sweeter varieties, like Fujis, tend to go overseas into Taiwan and China.
That's the breakdown.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
As an Individual
We're part of the Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative. It's a packing house owned by growers. All of us sign contracts to ship our fruit to them and ship all of our fruit to them. So they do the storage and grading, and B.C. Tree Fruits then does the selling of that fruit. That's why we're not up on the exact stats of where that fruit is going, because we do the growing and then they do the storage and selling.