Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the honourable members of the committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Canadian Honey Council and its members.
The potential economic partnership agreement between Canada and Japan is something we are following closely as it will impact honey exports by our members.
The Canadian Honey Council represents over 7,000 beekeepers and 600,000 honeybee colonies from across Canada. Seventy percent of Canada's colonies, as well as honey production, is located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Canada produces approximately 70 million pounds of honey each year, with 70% of this production being exported. The Canadian honeybee industry also contributes more than $2 billion annually to the Canadian economy.
Canada exports the majority of its honey production to the U.S.A., with the Japanese marketplace being the second largest importer of Canadian honey. It is important to note that 90% of all Canadian honey being exported to Japan comes from Alberta. Since 2009 Canadian honey has been strongly promoted in Japan with great success.
This has been highly successful due to a number of reasons. Canadian honey is world renowned for its white colour, subtle taste, and second-to-none food safety standards. These factors, combined with the effective marketing strategies by our industry in Japan, have steadily increased the value of these sales from $5.1 million dollars in 2008 to $9.8 million dollars in 2010.
While these numbers are quite small compared to other industries exporting to Japan, they are becoming more substantial to our industry with the potential growth factor.
As Japan produces only 5% of the honey it consumes, the opportunities for Canadian honey exports to Japan are substantial. I must note that there was a slight drop in exports from Canada to Japan in 2011 due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Japan—
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