Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for appearing.
This is the agriculture and agri-food committee, so I think we share two goals. One is that we're all trying, particularly in today's context, to look for ways to lower food prices for Canadians, but we're also looking for transparency and fairness in our value system, Canadian-based or wherever it fits in the world. To that end, we've studied the grocery code of conduct and a whole bunch of other things that lead to that.
Mr. Vaags, your testimony is exactly where my head is, because I come from two spaces experientially. One is within the grain sector, so I'm familiar with how that's marketed off a U.S. reference price: the Chicago Board of Trade and local basis. The other one is within the vegetable sector, which California often dominates, and this is processing. I've negotiated contracts with roughly the same framework. It's not as transparent, but basically, the U.S. dominates worldwide pricing there, on basis California, and then we negotiate what the basis values are. We know what it would exchange. We can find that information. My brain followed your testimony around how that goes.
What's missing in the beef trade to bring that basis negotiation more transparency? Can you comment?
I'm going to go to both of the other witnesses as well.