Thank you for the question.
We've had a wonderful relationship up until now with the government, and we hope to continue to do so. We actually approached the government as early as 1999 and asked to be regulated, because this is a condition for success for us. The organic sector is premised on traceability systems and on assurance and oversight. That's what consumers expect and want. Being regulated and having national standards in place was a critical part of that.
We're growing very quickly, as you've noted. Because the consumer demand is growing faster than our production in Canada, it means, of course, that the market is driven by imports.
We're also pursuing great opportunities in export markets. We've had in place some programs to assist us with that, but if we're looking at what some of our major trading partners in those developed areas have done, such as in the U.S. and EU, I would note that the U.S. Farm Bill has made specific designations for organic agriculture and earmarks for it. The EU's common agricultural policy has specific designations and supports for organic agriculture, primarily to build that production base and value chain domestically.
I would say that in Canada we're at that point right now. We need to look at ways in which.... There is great opportunity here, but we do need to create some incentive. There's a very difficult transition time, typically of about three years, when producers move to organic agriculture and their yields drop, and sometimes significantly. There are challenges as the new model is brought onto that land.
So the programs that have prioritized getting producers through that period have been very successful around the world. They lead in turn to a more robust domestic sector in the long run.