It does sound odd that we wouldn't be seeing a more remunerative market for our pork, for example, on the world market right now, given that there is a certain amount of pressure on production in some areas, but we have slipped considerably behind some of our competitors in terms of access, and some of it is through the free trade agreements.
Also, on the cost side we've seen a great deal of instability. We aren't suggesting it's unfair, but it has come on rather suddenly in terms of some of the costs of inputs. Biofuels, for example, have affected the price of grains, and so on. It's taking time to absorb that and to adjust to a new reality. The Canadian dollar has been very strong; that has had an impact opposite to the impact of the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which has made U.S. exporters much more competitive.
We've also seen a decline in major markets that emerged in the last four or five years as very promising opportunities for our exports. That's partly due to recession. We've seen Russia backing off on their importations, and China, for its own internal political reasons, deciding that it would not allow itself to be dependent on imports, at least for a while yet, and turning up its production levels remarkably. These developments have caused us to see much less opportunity.
For us this year, it has been the emergence of H1N1, which is a huge factor in the world demand for pork. There are still many countries that link pork meat with the transmissibility of H1N1, when in fact the problem is more one of people passing the virus on to pigs. That has been the most serious situation for us as an exporter. We've been hit quite significantly.
Yes, we are still moving product, but as in any commodity market, it moves at whatever price you can get for it, and when the demand conditions are weak, the price is also weak.