Evidence of meeting #55 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was billion.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
The short answer is yes, even though India's consumption profile is very different, of course, from Japan's. The biggest problem in India is not the refinement of the product, even though there is a market for high-end products.
The single biggest problem is really wastage. Indians do look to Canada for our very efficient post-harvest system of quality control and processing and minimization of waste in the whole issue of “from farm to fork”, of getting the product....
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
You mentioned that earlier, that wastage, and it struck me. It's not something that we actually talk very much about in terms of food in a country. The processing, the farming, and then the wastage and the storage: is that a big issue in terms of being able to work with India with the technology we have in Canada to prevent that? Can you expand on that a little bit, please?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
Yes. It is certainly a huge issue for India. It's multifactorial. It has to do with farm practices. It has to do with lack of a cold chain, of refrigeration. It has to do with the way markets are run and the lack of facilities. It has to do with a lack of distribution centres and the limited development of supermarkets that can preserve food. It has to do with bad roads and poor infrastructure. We can't solve all of those problems, but we have a lot of experience in getting food products to market and minimizing the loss.
I should clarify that the Indians waste a lot of food on the supply chain to the table, while we waste the food after the table.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
Let's not be too smug about it. We throw out a lot of food.
But I think the bigger point is this. We can negotiate a free trade agreement. We can negotiate a bilateral treaty. We can put in place frameworks. But to get India's attention, you need more than a framework, because a framework is a passive instrument and they're not going to pay attention to us unless they really believe we can make a difference.
I think we need a parallel strategy that really focuses on one, two, or three big things and we need to just keep hammering at it year after year after year.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
I think our time has gone.
I want to thank you, Mr. Woo, for being here, and Mr. Shastri and Mr. Sundaram. With that, that we'd like to—
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
—but I'm only going to deal with one motion and it's typical that you guys go in camera and vote against it. There would be five minutes if you wanted to go to another questioner.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, you can't speak about what happens in camera—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
With that, witnesses, we want to thank you very much for coming in.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
We will suspend as we move in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]