Thank you for that question. It's a question that I think many producers ask across the country and it's a worthwhile question. I think that not only do we need to consider our retail distributors but probably our processing industry as well.
As primary producers we depend on an efficient processing and distribution sector. We need them to be very competitive in order for us to be competitive globally.
I think the best way to answer this.... I recently had a discussion with a counterpart in Australia and Australia has very close geographic access to many high-value Asian markets. They did not have their markets disrupted due to a BSE event and yet their fed cattle always trade consistently lower than Canada and the U.S. I asked this individual, who's a leader in their industry, why is that the case, given the market access that they have and his answer was very quick. He said, “In Australia we simply do not have as efficient and as competitive a processing and distribution system as you have in North America.”
As producers we sometimes don't believe that we benefit from that world-class processing sector and that world-class distribution network, but the reality is that we do. Market power shifts and swings from time to time, but overall, we have a very competitive distribution sector here.