Sure.
Canada has always been an exporting nation. We have a great deal of resources and not too many people to feed, and as a result, we are able to produce a surplus of material, which is great for our economy as we are able to export that, to attract value from it. The canola industry has been a tremendous example of how a crop can be grown and further processed.
The fact that we have to export so much of our material has really changed the structure, or has created a direction for the grain supply chain. We know we need to be very efficient if we're going to compete with the world, when we grow most of our grain in the middle of the continent. If we're going to compete with somebody who is right next door to the customer and doesn't have to move the grain very far, we have to be very efficient.
That is really why we've seen so many changes. Although I grew up on a farm, I've only been directly in this part of the grain industry for nine years, and the changes I've seen over the last nine years are amazing. At the time it seemed overwhelming, but looking back, one recognizes that if we hadn't made those changes to create those efficiencies so that we could move the product in large volumes in a very consistent and transparent manner with the quality assurance, we would never be able to compete.
Of course, I would love to see further processing applied to our other crops as we are seeing on the canola side. Again, we have to be able to compete with large processors around the world that have heavy investment in infrastructure, for example, Turkey, where they have flour mills all over the place.
Certainly our industry has been designed around the ability to move and transport.
Of course, our domestic industry is still very important. We do have 30 million people to feed. We cannot ignore them. We need to keep an eye on them. It is important that the government recognize that we don't just export everything, that we do have a healthy domestic industry as well.