That's right. We've spent many years looking at it and hearing questions like today, “Give us the data, what is the data on the impact of insolvency?” The reality is the data is very difficult to come by relative to how the data's collected by Stats Canada. When we go back and look at what the true impact here is, we're talking about a trade tool. When we look at one of the comments made earlier about the data looking at the United States, it was that our trade has increased and we haven't seen any dramatic shift within PACA.
Well, there are two things there. Mr. Gorrell from Agriculture Canada made a very good point. We're in a very strong position with where our Canadian dollar is currently. We're in a little bit of a rainbow right now as a fruit and vegetable sector being able to ship to the U.S. and being a preferred country of purchase because of our dollar position and the very strong growers we have who grow quality product. But that's not always going to be the situation. As Mr. Gilvesy has mentioned, there is a tipping point, and when a bankruptcy hits without protection here in Canada, growers will not get paid, and the family farm that you talked about will break down.
As I mentioned earlier, the series of how we sell in produce is a function of that in that many small farms are selling $85,000 a year to a larger dealer who then sells to the retailer or exports. It's that mechanism of supply chain that, if one doesn't get paid, then the trickle effect through the entire system impacts the rural community and the family farm itself, the fabric of how we sell and market fruit and vegetables across Canada and how we export.
The big piece here is looking at where are we today. Today we are missing a trade tool that we used with the U.S. for many years, a privileged access to a fair and ethical trade tool in the U.S. and the big stick. A member asked the question about going down to the U.S. and having to meet the buyer and get payment protection. Well, we've already seen Canadian farmers not access that, such as the B.C. farmer who had to only take half the value of their product, because they don't have the big stick that they had with PACA to begin with.
Now there are two pieces here. It's that dispute resolution mechanism that we lost in the U.S. because in Canada we do not have the insolvency tool to protect sellers and farmers in the event of a bankruptcy. We heard earlier today the data around mentioning 81.1 and 81.2 under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act that protects aquaculturists and farmers. The challenge we have with that is that it doesn't work. The reality is that the 15 days prior to actually pick up your product and then the 15 days to claim after don't function within the fundamental tenet of how produce is sold and how the perishable nature of the product functions.
There's never an opportunity to collect, and then the time frame afterward is not within a feasible amount of time to actually then collect the product, if there is any at the front end, and then collect the payment afterwards. It doesn't work for a farmer, and it's only focused to people who have their hands in the dirt. The sellers in the market don't qualify either. We have that farmer who sold to the bigger farmer, who becomes a dealer who then sells to a wholesaler, who then sells to the U.S. Nobody beyond the person who had their hands in the dirt fits into that system, but all must be part of it to be functional, just like the U.S. has created.
So let's not over-reserach this anymore. We've found that bonding doesn't work. Insurance doesn't work, nor pooling of funds. All of these things were researched under the regulatory co-operation council.
As we heard earlier, we also have enabled a new legislative tool that will be available to the committee on Wednesday, and the dispute resolution corporation will present and answer questions on it. The tool is available and viable to actually put into play and move forward. It's all ready to go. We just need to have action.