Evidence of meeting #12 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was processing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
We can ramp up the production, but we need the processing to go along with it. We can produce the products, but we need to get them processed. The value of our products is in the value-added, so let's ramp up the processing.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you very much.
Our next round of questions goes to MP Jowhari.
You have five minutes.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
Madam Chair, I'll be splitting my time with MP Longfield.
I have one question that is going to go to Morton Food Service.
Mr. Calcott, you indicated that you carry about 6,500 different food items, and you carry, I'm not sure, either one million dollars' or four million dollars' worth of inventory. You made a large investment in the infrastructure to be sure you would be able to maintain the quality of that food when it's being distributed. You also talked about shifting your business and about e-commerce. Can you quickly explain what is unique about food that is prepared for restaurants, which is food services, that doesn't allow you to redirect that food to retailers? If that could be done, what would inhibit that?
President, Morton Food Service
The primary inhibitors are the pack sizes of the food we carry. They're very large packages. For example, when you have a 50-pound case of chicken wings, it's not very easy to go into a retail establishment. We are looking at items from an e-commerce point of view that the consumer could readily take to their home. You might say Costco already sort of created a market for that when they got us used to buying in larger quantities. That's allowed us to sort of segue into that market to try to make up a small percentage of what we are down. It's going to take a lot more than that to help us get back to normal.
I hope that answers your question.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Yes, so it's basically the packet size that is an inhibitor to be able to get it into the retailers, because they then have to unpack.
President, Morton Food Service
Well, if they can't easily unpack.... There's no labelling on a lot of our products internally. The restaurants don't need to have internal labelling. On a six-by-two kilogram case of french fries, they don't have to have the labelling that would be required in the retail trade. They're used to buying large quantities. That's where they get discounts, and it's better for them from that point of view.
Clearly, our end of the food distribution business is quite a bit separate from the retail trade.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay, that was a good explanation. Thank you.
Mr. Longfield, over to you.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
Thank you.
I want to direct my question to Mr. Horne. We've been working together on supply and demand in our part of Ontario. We've also worked on the beef research centre. I was working with Conservative MP Alex Ruff, who has a lot of cattlemen in his area. We have a Cargill processing plant in our area. The coordination of efforts across parties and across governments is so important.
I was getting frustrated during my round of questioning that it doesn't seem like we have the same coordination going on between the provincial and federal governments, and that this might be something we need to address. Do you have any comments on that? Have you been working with the provincial government in Ontario and trying to bridge those gaps?
Executive Director, Beef Farmers of Ontario
Thank you for your question, Mr. Longfield.
Yes, absolutely, we've been working with the supply chain in Ontario and our provincial ministry and minister, and so have my counterparts in the other provinces. Yes, it's frustrating that there seems to be somewhat of a finger-pointing exercise between levels of government occurring, but I think our response back to that is that the beef sector has been very clear on the needs of our producers across the country. My counterparts in the other provinces share with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association on the approach that we need, so the politics of what's needed are delaying what needs to be done in terms of supporting primary producers and the rest of the supply chain.
I would invite our colleagues at both levels of government to come back to the table and work together, because I agree with your points about coordination. It's absolutely essential, and we're seeing a lot of delay and confusion. I don't think there is any on the beef side. I think we've been very clear in our requests for what we need and what we want.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
Very good.
Maybe I'll also go to Mr. Lowe. In looking at what happened a few years ago with the tuberculosis outbreak, we were able to very quickly respond. What's different this time?
President, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
I've been wondering that myself. Two years ago when I was really involved in that, we got AgriRecovery going really quickly. It just happened a lot faster and I don't know why.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you very much.
Our next round of questions goes to MP Patzer. You have five minutes.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you, and I'll be sharing my time with MP Rood as well.
Last year's growing season definitely was one we won't soon forget. I was talking to a constituent named Dave on Friday, and he was actually in his combine trying to finish off harvest before he can begin seeding. For the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, do you know how many acres of crops across Canada didn't get harvested last year and still had to be dealt with this year before seeding could begin?
Vice-President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I don't know the exact numbers, but I know there are a lot. I planted corn yesterday beside a field that still has to be combined, so there's a lot of that going on out there. I don't know whether Scott may have some statistics.
Scott, do you know the numbers there?
Assistant Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I don't have that offhand. I know it varies from region to region to some extent, and there were considerable unharvested products across much of western Canada last year, but I don't have specific stats on hand. I can certainly get that to you.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
That would be good; I would appreciate that.
The other thing I've been hearing about a lot lately is the issue with the Canadian meat supplier, the beef supply. What I'm wondering is whether there are any gaps or areas of concern for supply chains with grain farming.
Vice-President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I'm not really hearing any at this time. There are more concerns about things like ethanol not being produced because of the price of gasoline right now, which will result in less supply of dried distillers' grain, which is a key protein source to a lot of cattle feed. That certainly is a concern, but I'm not hearing of any other gaps. Everything seems to be working and moving along fine right now.
Conservative
Executive Director, Beef Farmers of Ontario
I was just going comment on the DDGs as a feedstuff for Ontario, most specifically eastern Canadian beef producers. The price of those products has doubled since COVID hit. Since March 1, the price of DDGs in Ontario has doubled, and that obviously relates to a major cost increase for feedlot producers.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Yes, for sure.
Also, has there been any increase of food waste within the grain sector or with feeding cattle? Have there been any issues with that at all?
Executive Director, Beef Farmers of Ontario
I certainly can't speak for grain farmers or the ethanol industry, but beef producers are finding alternative ways to address supply shortages in certain areas and they are certainly working with nutritionists to close the gap in that area. However, it's certainly not ideal and it's coming at higher costs.
Conservative