Evidence of meeting #7 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
There is a specific maple that produces maple syrup. Even in China I know they're working to grow their own trees to make their own maple syrup, but from what I know, that will be—
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
And that's where it comes into branding us as maple syrup. It's just like somebody says scotch comes from Scotland. Maple syrup comes from North America.
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
We can work with the CFIA to have a label with a certain verification of what has been packed in Canada instead of being packed anywhere else around the world. We want to produce Canadian jobs, and this is not what is happening when we pack it in Europe.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
The scotch makers in Scotland and certain cheese makers in Italy went to the WTO. We might have to go there to say it has to be maple; it can't be called maple because it's not made from maple trees. We should do that fight with the WTO.
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
We will work all together for that.
November 26th, 2013 / 4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
You mentioned your brand. When you sell maple syrup in Germany, for instance, it doesn't have the brand of the producer. Do you have one brand for all your products?
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
We have 30 brands. It allows us to have eight partners in Japan because one brand could cover the retail market and the other brand could cover the food service market.
Liberal
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
We don't sell in bulk. Everything that's sold around the world is packed in Canada.
Liberal
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
We do put the label on. We do everything because we control the quality from the producers to the end. When we put our quality label, we want to make sure that we control the whole production chain.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Years ago there was a big concern about global warming and acid rain. Does that seem to be having a big impact on your trees? Even down in the United States where it's warmer their trees are doing quite well, apparently.
President, Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec
We have been doing things for several years, such as liming the trees specifically to counter acid rain and to maintain the health of the trees so that they can produce year after year. In the areas where acid rain is more of a problem, we are forced to lime the maples in the orchards so that they stay healthy.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
What about honey? We're not talking much about honey. Is there a tariff on honey? You said maple syrup has 8%; it's 17% for cranberries. Is there a tariff on honey going to Europe? Is that a big market for you?
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
In Europe it's a regulation that is the barrier. The regulation there is very, very high. The main concern in honey is the weaknesses of the bees. We had a crop of honey five times smaller this year compared to last year. In one year it's five times lower. We have a very big challenge in volume regarding honey.
For the urban market, their regulation is very high. We do not export honey to Europe right now because of that.
Liberal
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
I don't think so. We need to get to their level of regulation regarding honey. We're fine with it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Eyking.
We'll move to Mr. Zimmer for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Sir, thanks for coming to the committee today.
Following along the lines of talking a bit about honey, I notice your organization helps the honey groups out.
In terms of volume, you talked about 80% of the world production in maple syrup and 14 million pounds. What is that in terms of honey? What does it represent that way?
Director General, Citadelle, Maple Syrup Producers' Cooperative
Well, it's not much. We talk about half a million pounds on our side, but it's not the amount, we are in education to help build them. For us, it's not the big volume. But still, since we're a co-op, everyone is important, so we take care of them as much as we take care of 2,000 families in maple syrup. So for us it's not a question of volume.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Thanks for that.
Backing up to your comments about branding maple syrup, I know champagne is no longer around. You simply can't sell it. If it's produced in Canada, you can't call it champagne. You can call it something else, but you can't call it champagne. Hopefully, that works out well for you, because I think it's something we need to protect and keep Canadian.
I have a couple of simple questions for you.
We know that CETA is going to be good for the industry. The 8% tariff coming off is one thing—it's going to give you a benefit of 8%—but do you see it as another spinoff benefit in terms of a best-case scenario? By taking off that 8%, it should give not only the 8% additional opportunity, it should actually give you a lot more opportunity. Do you have numbers? I put down on my paper here, what's your best-case scenario with CETA? As an industry, what do you foresee in the future?
President, Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec
If all it means is an extra 8% profit, we are going to miss the boat. We have to use that 8% first to get ahead of our competitors from the United States and then to give ourselves some breathing room so that we can get our product known.
Over the years, Quebec maple syrup producers have invested about $4 million in promoting and researching the product. Each dollar invested in promotion has generated between $4 and $5 in profit. In addition, the investment is sustainable.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
What do you see? I see the same thing, but how do you define it in terms of numbers? Is it going to double the amount of maple syrup produced, or is it going to be 25% more maple syrup produced? What do you think that's going to be? I'm asking you to guess.