I mentioned quickly in my opening comments that two years ago, 80% of our animals went south of the border live. Our marketers had done an amazing job leading up to that, without knowing about some of the issues that were going to potentially happen at the border, by increasing slaughter capacity and increasing demand here in Canada. They've done an excellent job.
Even last year with that reduction in animals going across the border, it was still 50%. If anything ever happens to that border, it will be devastating for the industry—not only here but in the U.S. Our counterparts in the U.S. are as worried about it as we are.
I pretend to be a bit of a statistician. If I look at the number of animals we've exported versus what they've slaughtered in the U.S., they've had a lot of growth in demand as well. Over the last 10 years, about 80% of their growth has been with Canadian animals going south. Last year, when we reduced our quantity going across the border, they processed fewer animals because of that. About 60% of the lower volume was due to the lack of Canadian animals.
It's important for both of our industries. I quite often call it a North American industry. They're not growing it anywhere else in the world. Between Canada and the U.S., obviously, that's where most of it's eaten.