The key thing here is that we don't want another experience like South Korea. If the United States moves forward and ratifies this agreement—and they have these preferential changes in tariffs and so on, and we don't have them—our processors who market into Japan will be at a significant disadvantage and we will lose our share of that market.
The Japanese price for pork in the supermarket is about twice what people pay in Canada. It is a very lucrative market for us. We send high-quality products there. We bring high-value products there. We take grain and oilseed meal, which is worth maybe 10¢ a pound, and we convert it into meat that sells for about $1 a pound. We are a high value-added business.
It is not just Brandon and Neepawa. There is a major plant here in Winnipeg, and all its product comes from the plant in Brandon. It is not as though it comes from mid-air. There are 1,400 jobs in that plant, and they would be at risk. We are very concerned that if this agreement.... We have to be in partnership with the United States on this issue.
We have major threats across the world into the Japanese market. For example, I talked to a Danish company. When the Arctic Ocean becomes open for transportation, they will be able to ship by container-load fresh chilled pork from Europe, around the Russian coast, into the Japanese market. They will be able to do it in enough time that they can actually put chilled pork on the shelves in Japan. That would be a major competition factor for us, so we cannot be on the outside of these things. There are major threats to us from other competitive forces. This is an agreement that would shelter us from some of that.