Thanks.
I'm Neil Campbell, general manager of the P.E.I. Grain Elevator Corporation. Thanks for your time.
The elevator is a farmer-controlled board of directors. I'm here today representing the Atlantic Grains Council, which we are a member of.
At the elevator I'm directly responsible for the purchase, sale, risk management, and logistics of close to 80,000 tonnes from P.E.I alone. Because of shrinking availability of livestock in our area, 65% to 75% of those products are now exported off the island This is a recent phenomenon and is very positive for farmers and the local economy.
The Atlantic Grains Council represents the entire regional value chain. It is made up of our four provinces, hundreds of growers, processors, and input suppliers. The organization is financed through producer association memberships and an industry sponsorship program. A recent effort of the council has included the successful implementation of a voluntary producer-led research levy in order to improve our region's ability to increase our research capacity, especially at the local level.
Agriculture has always been important to our region, and it is today as well. Farms are diverse, with crops and livestock production. Atlantic Canada exports crops around the world, domestically and internationally.
Some of our challenges locally include the lack of value-added processing facilities and difficulties with transportation handling, which increases our costs. Regionally, we use the elevator here in Halifax for use in distribution. In addition, there are several sizable feed markets that assess these facilities. The major mainland companies use local food sources. We manufacture several hundred thousand tonnes of livestock and fish food for the aquaculture business.
I'll give you a brief overview of the Atlantic agriculture output. Nova Scotia farmers have shown signs of developing greater capacity for crops such as corn and soybeans for on-farm use. There are grain brokerage facilities available in that province to purchase the grain and soy products. A similar trend is also noticed in New Brunswick, although they have some issues, being closer to Quebec and Ontario, with domestic competition.
As far as the P.E.I. elevator is concerned, it's a good-news story. We currently store excess capacity in Halifax. This includes our milling wheat and 10,000 tonnes of feed wheat for local use and our export program. Over 15,000 tonnes of P.E.I. barley have been stored in the elevator and have now been shipped to Morocco, as a result of some trade improvements in the last couple of years. We're also in the process of moving 29,000 tonnes of soybeans, which will end up in Europe in the biodiesel industry. We see these markets being opened up to the Middle East and the European Union as very positive for our area.
If it were not for participating in these key opportunities, prices paid to the local producers would be much more subdued because of the oversupply of grains and oilseeds, as well as insufficient infrastructure to handle the storage. While there's competition, the facilities in Halifax are very convenient for our milling wheat. The local flour mill uses 100% of our product, and it's felt to be cost-effective for the flour mill.
There are also facilities available that could hold containerized products, such as malt barley into Europe. Identity preserved soybeans, non-GMO, would also go in those areas. These contracts that would be given to the farmers are very beneficial to them. As prices have been quite high lately, it's been a great way to offset falling demand for regional livestock.
Our business is anticipating potential future opportunities with the new market access related to direct access to these markets. We've now commissioned a study to identify these higher value markets inside the European Union and to learn how we can access them. We also see that the Canadian-European trade opportunities are very advantageous for our local grain farmers and the regional agriculture industry here at home.
We're very aware of the importance of the work of this committee, and we're aware of the various regional, provincial, and national processor and producer organizations that provide you with the input required to continue your deliberations on the comprehensive economic trade agreement.
Thank you.