Evidence of meeting #144 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was disease.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Is that what we are doing at the moment? The situation is a concern. Currently, there is great demand in China, but we don't want that country to suddenly stop importing from Canada for any reason.
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
I feel that China is the only country that gives value to most of the products exported there.
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
So, if the products are not sold in China, they lose a lot of their value. We are not really exporting to China at the expense of other markets. Products meant for China do not have a lot of other markets. In fact, even when they cannot be exported to China, they end up there by a different route in certain cases.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Okay.
Mr. Stewart, I imagine that the situation is the same for you. The disease is providing quite extraordinary opportunities in China.
Is it important for the Canadian government to maintain heathy relations with China so that our exports can continue and we can continue to sell in that country?
Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Pork Complex, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
I think, given the fact that we export so much of our product, it's important that we have the availability of all the markets that we have access to today. I think the notion of China being open is great, obviously, to Mr. Nadeau's point. There are certain products that go to China that don't go really anywhere else in the world.
As to the size of the gap we're talking about here from ASF, if you took all the product that any exporter of pork ships anywhere in the world and sent it all to China tomorrow, it wouldn't fill the hole that they have right now. What that does is it actually opens up as more countries—for example, Europe sends an awful lot of product to China.... As that continues to go, those other markets are looking for product and we can also go to those through the effective trade negotiations that have been done in the past.
Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Pork Complex, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
It can feel as if it's China, but it's just not all about China.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Berthold.
Mr. Poissant, you have a few minutes to ask a question.
Liberal
Jean-Claude Poissant Liberal La Prairie, QC
So we have the Prime Minister to thank.
Mr. Nadeau, you talked earlier about controls that have been effective to a certain extent in the Maritimes. Can you tell us more about that?
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
Controls that have been effective to a certain extent—
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
No, that is not what I said. I was talking about “maritime” imports, those coming in by sea.
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
That has nothing to do with the country. We think that there should be better control over what comes in by ship.
Imports by land or air are relatively well controlled. We have our doubts about what comes in by sea. We saw what happened recently in the United States, where they found products, I forget how many tonnes, from China, some of which were processed products.
I was talking about maritime shipments, not the maritime provinces.
Liberal
Jean-Claude Poissant Liberal La Prairie, QC
Right.
I have one final question.
In your opinion, on this matter, how are relations between the CFIA and provincial officials? In Quebec, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food controls those imports.
How are those relationships, to your knowledge?
Chief Executive Officer, Olymel
As I said just now, everyone involved wants to work together, whether at provincial or federal level. The same goes for the associations representing processors and producers.
There is real awareness. Everyone is working together.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.
Thank you, Mr. Poissant.
That is all the time we have.
Thank you to Mr. Stewart from Maple Leaf Foods.
I also thank Mr. Nadeau, from Olymel, for taking the time to talk to us today.
This concludes our committee for the day.