Good afternoon.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee members for having us today.
My name is Benoit Legault. I am the general manager of Producteurs de grains du Québec, which represents 9,500 grain producers in all regions of Quebec, who cultivate over one million hectares of land, generate an annual revenue of $2 billion and create nearly 20,000 jobs in Quebec.
We are always happy that political representatives show interest in getting the point of view of grain producers in eastern Canada, who represent 20% of grain sales in Canada. In Quebec, specifically, grain producers supply a series of agri-food sectors dedicated to the production of meat, flour and bread, oil and margarine, alcoholic beverages and ethanol.
Although Quebec grain producers export half a million to 1 million tonnes of corn and approximately 1 million tonnes of soybeans, the impact of their efforts on food production and food security depends largely on the price of their commodities and their inputs, which are directly linked to international markets and prices. For inputs, transport issues mean that effective relationships with suppliers in the Atlantic region are crucial so that our farmers can produce at competitive costs in the east of the country.
As a representative of grain producers, we support the principle that geopolitical conflicts should not interfere with the efficient and cost-effective movement of food, agricultural commodities and agricultural inputs. In this sense, obviously, we believe that the end of the trading relationship with Russia goes against this principle. Eastern Canada remains dependent on agricultural inputs from abroad, particularly for nitrogen, a crucial element for maintaining and increasing crop productivity. The reflex is to focus on developing production capacity in eastern Canada, but as you know, that is an enormous challenge given that the production of nitrogen is a heavy industrial activity requiring significant capital investment. Furthermore, it does not necessarily meet certain environmental objectives in Canada, since it produces a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, or GHGs. This situation represents a huge risk to our security and ability to produce food in eastern Canada.
Moreover, food security is an issue of better meeting international demand. A further rise in protectionism in an already unstable trade environment and various non-tariff trade barriers are hampering the efficient movement of agricultural commodities. Canada certainly has a role to play not just in standardizing trade rules, but also in promoting them to encourage the efficient movement of agricultural goods.
It is difficult to measure and understand what the final outcome of this war started by Russia will be. Russia is completely changing the landscape of trade and movement of agricultural commodities as it deploys new geopolitical and trade strategies, particularly with China. These unpredictable strategies are disrupting grain production and marketing around the world, including in Canada and Quebec.
Agricultural producers believe that the unstable geopolitical environment—with these conflicts, these divisions and the rearrangement of relationships between states—is a real threat to our production capacity, here and abroad. Producers, especially the next generation, feel overwhelmed and demotivated by this elusive reality, which is difficult to fit into a business plan.
As a representative of agricultural and grain producers, we have certainly not developed a Canadian vision regarding the management of international relations to ensure peace and security, and food security. We are simply returning to safe values, namely those that provide producers in Quebec and Canada with the conditions for a productive and profitable agricultural heritage. Above all, these conditions must be attractive to the next generation in order to properly respond to the challenge of food security.
In this sense, it is important, in our opinion, to do the following: not impose measures that restrict the movement at lower cost of agricultural commodities and agricultural inputs in and to Canada; develop a certain autonomy in the production of necessary inputs in eastern Canada; ensure standardization of international trade rules and always promote this idea at the international level; ensure that we have exemplary risk management programs and funding that enable us to properly address the issue of geopolitical upheavals without forgetting climate change; make substantial investments in innovation and access to new technologies; develop the necessary tools so that the information necessary for efficient production and marketing circulates well between actors in the agri-food sectors here and around the world; and finally, have a vision of agriculture and food that allows sustainable growth in agricultural productivity.
These are the main messages that Quebec grain producers asked me to convey to you today regarding the issue of food security in the context of this war launched by Russia against the Ukrainian population.
Thank you for your attention.