Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee members, and ladies and gentlemen.
I want to thank you for this opportunity to be able to present to you my perspective on the impact this bilateral free trade agreement would have on our business and the industry.
I'm from Moose Jaw, and Moose Jaw is in the production heartland for lentils and many other pulses. If it weren't for lentils, our farm and our business would not have survived the past 30 years, and this is largely due to the fact that low grain prices meant that we needed to diversify into something that would be profitable on our farms.
We supply seed to, and purchase back the lentil production from, nearly 2,300 farmers in a range of around 200 miles around our farm and our company. Just to give you an idea of how much growth we've had, when we started the business 30 years ago, we had three employees and we shipped about a million tonnes per week. Now we've expanded to three processing mills and 65 employees. We are running 24 hours a day and exporting 5.5 million pounds per week. It's been a substantial growth. We ship somewhere around 25 containers per day when we're at full steam.
Needless to say, this is an important industry to us. Colombia is one of the number one buyers of lentils from our area, particularly the large green layered variety that is predominantly grown in our particular area. As a country they import around 68,000 metric tonnes a year, and we deal directly with importing companies in Colombia. We deal with the number one importer in Colombia right now, who imports about 50% of these lentils on an annual basis.
Successful negotiation of a bilateral agreement between Canada and Colombia is an opportunity for Canada to sustain a viable industry and to be instrumental in the development of an industry that's been largely grown without government intervention.
If the U.S. beats us in the race, we stand to lose a significant amount of the market in terms of competitiveness and market expansion. Colombia is important; without them we would quickly have an overproduction in Canada, which would result in a lowering of prices to farmers. Farmers would then get the signal not to grow the lentils. That would then have a direct impact on us in terms of reduced exports. Reduced exports mean fewer employees, because we wouldn't be shipping nearly the same amount of product. Of course we would try to find alternative markets, but that would be very difficult because Colombia has been such a big part of our business.
At the end of the day, Canada has been blessed as a resource-rich country. As citizens of Canada it's important for us to steward these resources to the benefit of all people, whether they are growers, processors, or exporters. What's also important at the end of the day is being able to take these peas, lentils, and chick peas and be able to deliver them to consumers. Bringing down the barriers of trade will allow me to do my job better and be able to bless those who are in need of food.
The cost of the tariffs right now, at $150 per metric tonne, is significant. The price of food has doubled, if not tripled, in the last year because of what's been going on worldwide. This represents a huge amount of money when you consider the people who are trying to buy our products from Canada.
Thank you for listening to me, and I'd be interested to take some questions regarding what I've said.