I apologize for being late. Yes, I've had a good tour of this part of Calgary this morning in the dark. It's been a bit difficult to find this place. Garmin is a great thing for GPS, but it doesn't always get you to where you want to be.
Anyway, thank you, Mr. Chairman
Good morning, committee members. Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about the barley supply chain as well as opportunities and challenges facing the barley industry.
Today I am here in my capacity as chairman of the Barley Council of Canada Working Group, but I am also a farmer and I have been actively involved with a wide range of agricultural organizations, including the Western Barley Growers Association, of which I was president until a year ago. I also served six years on the board of directors of the Alberta Barley Commission.
To give you some background information about the Barley Council of Canada, the Barley Council of Canada Working Group was formed in 2011. As you can see from our brief, it includes a great cross-section of the barley industry in Canada from coast to coast. Besides bringing together farmers and industry leaders, the working group has also taken the time to conduct research in order to understand what its role can and should be within the barley value chain. We are currently finalizing our bylaws and business plan and hope to incorporate the Barley Council of Canada, or as we like to refer to it, BCC, by the end of this calendar year.
Before I address the challenges and opportunities facing our industry, I’d like to talk to you about barley as a crop. Barley is a great crop for Canada. It is well suited to grow in our climate. It makes an excellent rotational crop. It has a wide variety of potential end uses. It can be used for the feed industry for livestock, for malt for the brewing industry, and to make healthy food for consumers. Despite this variety of uses, we have yet to truly maximize the potential for Canada’s barley crop.
Our industry has conducted research into why this has happened. In the past year, two major studies have been completed on the Canadian barley industry. The “Business Case Assessment of the Western Canadian Barley Sector: In Search of the Optimal Marketing Structure” was initiated by the Western Barley Growers Association with support from the Alberta Barley Commission and was completed in March 2012. The Barley Council of Canada Working Group report on research, stakeholder consultation, and analysis was carried out by Synthesis Agri-Food Network and was completed in early November.
Both of these studies examined the opportunities and challenges facing the barley industry. Both identify a great need to form a national barley council and for it to take a leadership role. The Barley Council of Canada Working Group, through its consultation with the barley industry, as well as by using these studies, has also identified four priority areas for our value chain. These will also be key priorities for the Barley Council of Canada going forward.
The first priority we discovered is support of varietal development and innovation through quality research and breeding programs. The Barley Council of Canada will support varietal development research to improve yield and quality. It will provide a unified voice for barley research and help attract research and innovation funding without duplicating existing efforts or mandates of other organizations. We will take on a coordinating role for research and, working with farmers, industry members, researchers, and various levels of government, we will develop a national research strategy to encourage innovation and efficiency in our industry.
The second priority we identified was crop production and a commitment to grower profitability and best practices. The Barley Council of Canada will support and collaborate with agronomic researchers to develop best practices to manage production issues. The Barley Council of Canada will also educate growers on the customer requirements for Canadian barley and how best to achieve these requirements. It's important that the needs of barley end users are met and equally important that these needs are communicated to barley farmers so that they can grow exactly what the industry wants and so that they can achieve greater success in their own farming operations.
The third priority is to develop markets and improve market access in a manner that complements the existing initiatives. The Barley Council of Canada will expand domestic and international markets by providing a unified voice for the barley industry with government and by working to develop new international and domestic marketing opportunities, such as barley food.
The Barley Council of Canada will take on the role of providing a focus and a voice for the barley industry by communicating and collaborating with existing industry groups, as well as other commodity councils and associations on general trade and market access issues that affect all commodities.
The fourth priority that we identified is improvement in the understanding of the barley industry throughout the value chain and with government stakeholders. The Barley Council of Canada will ensure that all levels of the barley value chain and government have a solid understanding of the issues and opportunities facing the barley sector in order to ensure the industry’s long-term success. In acting as a conduit between barley farmers, researchers, industry stakeholders, and government, the Barley Council of Canada will take on an important role in improving value chain communication, and will provide a unified voice to encourage further investment in processing, research, and innovation.
As you can see, the Barley Council of Canada has big plans to grow Canada's barley industry. In having a dedicated, commodity-specific council, we believe barley will achieve the same success as such other crops as canola and pulse.
When the Barley Council of Canada takes on the leadership role our industry has so clearly identified as a need, it will work collaboratively with barley farmers, members of industry, and various levels of government. The Barley Council of Canada will develop and implement a common vision that will enable long-term profitability and sustainable growth of the Canadian barley industry through value chain collaboration.
I thank you for your time, and I look forward to your questions.