We just felt it was the right place to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for that privilege.
The other thing we would like to start out with is congratulations to the Minister of Agriculture for all the money he's spent travelling the world, being away from his family, to assist us with market access. We'd like that on the record. We would also like to thank Fred Gorrel and his secretariat team on trade. He now has horses under him, with a bunch of talent that the Canadian system does have. Market access is important.
With respect to imports and exports, the beef industry tracks that. XL Foods tracks that very well. We have major concerns. We are now no longer a net exporter to the United States. We are a net importer from the United States. It happened last year, for the first time in my short meat career. It seems as if American beef coming into Canada is going to do even better this year.
We would also like to thank the efforts of CFIA. We see a very transparent working relationship with them that has developed over the last 10 years in the beef industry, since BSE. We have confidence in each other. We believe that we are a world leader, and we support them in their initiatives.
We are concerned about some fuzzy words currently being used. One is “validation”, which of course is “outcome-based”. They kind of make the industry a little bit nervous. We'll work towards getting the framework around those phrases, so that we have a better understanding and these plants can continue to operate efficiently and protect our consumers.
On labelling, we have some concerns in the beef sector about labelling, such as the “natural” claim in Canada versus the United States. You can walk into a Walmart and buy “natural” ground beef. We are assured that the product does not enter Canada, but we know the livestock does leave Canada to fill the needs of those labels.
On the U.S. dropping the ethanol subsidization, we kind of see that working both ways. We feel it will help the feed grain situation in North America over the next three to five years. If corn did hit $10 a bushel, maybe chicken breasts would be equivalent to strip loin, so it might not be too bad for the protein sector.
That's tongue in cheek. That could be misled by Rory. Sorry Rory.
On traceability, we have traceability in livestock, and we're working on making that more efficient, as Rory alluded to. We understand that this cannot be government supported forever. We're not sure why not. But we have to make this efficient, and the current system is not. We are looking at using a bill of lading. Zoning is critical. There are probably better ways of doing it through a more efficient bill of lading and what they call premises ID.
In the beef sector, we're implementing the beef information exchange system, the BIXS. We're interested to see what the uptake from the producers is going to be. It will be there for them to use. I think we are putting the electronics in place as we speak. That will give them the yield and carcass information they've been looking for. We look forward to that uptake as well.
The SRM road map is critical. This is coming to the support of the beef round table, which does wonderful work. It has since 2003, and we thank the government for implementing these round tables. We find that this has allowed the further processors and the processors of beef and veal in this country to understand each other's businesses a little better so that they know that we're not always ripping them off. We try to buy the livestock as cheaply as possible, and we try to sell the meat for the most money we can get for it. That's business. We try to stay in business to make money.
The SRM, though, is a little disappointing. The round table supported it 100%. It was supported by the beef round table, which is a national, federal organization. And it was deemed not necessary. That is in the packing industry's face every morning when we go to buy over-30-month livestock in this country. We look forward to working with CFIA to get a road map to get us out of this box we're in as soon as possible.
I look forward to questions from there.
We have a beef infrastructure in this country that is struggling. It has rationalized itself. There may be room for more. I don't want to mention anything, but there may be room for more infrastructure and rationalization in the beef packing industry. Maybe it's okay. Maybe we will just slaughter them in the United States. That might be all right. Time will tell. But we are going to do everything in our power, because at XL, we have a lot of investment in this country, to maintain our plants in this country.
So we ask you to keep us as efficient and as effective as possible. That would be on the regulatory side. That's where the SRM policy fits in.
Food safety is of the utmost concern to all people in the meat industry. We should understand that. At no point will we take a risk with food safety. The customer is of the utmost importance to us, because that's who does keep us in business.
On “product of Canada”, we've fixed the livestock side of things, but if you did want to marshal a load for China, for example, we would have to segregate possibly 10 steers out of an operation that's doing 4,200 a day. You'd sooner cut them down. The cost is horrendous. So we just need to find our way through that. That's system recognition when we talk to foreign countries, because we can sign a deal, but if it doesn't accompany what we're doing and we have to go through different measures, it adds costs—and I believe that's for all protein in this country.
Because Rory did mention the FTA with Korea, I don't want to spend any time on it. I think we all understand that.
We look forward to a possible strong FTA with Japan.
I'll leave it there, Mr. Chair. I'm sure there aren't many questions. I think I answered them all the way through.
Thank you.