Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the opportunity to address the group today.
By way of background, Viterra is one of Canada's largest grain industry leaders. Our company has been in operation for over 100 years with operations right across the country that include grain elevators; oilseed processing facilities, including for canola; pulse processing facilities; and port facilities on both coasts.
We are 50% owned by Glencore Agriculture, and our other 50% is owned by Canadian pension funds, namely, the Canada pension plan and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.
We have a long history of working with Canadian farmers, as I said, dating back over 100 years. Our job is to connect their production to various areas around the world that are in deficit. In fact, over 90% of Canada's farmers depend on world markets for their livelihoods.
Over the last several years, China has become an ever increasingly important market for Viterra and the thousands of farmers that we serve. We export several different commodities to China annually, including a significant amount of canola. Other major commodities would include wheat, barley, flax, soybeans and peas.
On March 26 this year, Viterra received notice suspending our licence to export canola to China. This decision by one of our major customers is having a profound impact on our industry and will continue to have major ramifications the longer it continues.
We've been very active in exploring various mitigation strategies and assessing both the short-term and long-term impact this will have on the fluidity of our pipeline. We are working to manage disruptions with producers, deliveries into our system, and sales in and out of our facilities. We are also working very closely with our railway partners to manage pipeline disruptions.
As a company and an industry, we've been very clear on our position. All of our exported products are rigorously tested to ensure they meet specific import standards. We do not believe that this is a quality issue.
We take these quality concerns very seriously and support a sound science-based approach in the testing of our exports. This is what gives Canada its excellent reputation for being a safe and reliable supplier of food ingredients and makes companies like Viterra a preferred supplier for many destinations around the world.
We appreciate the fact that the federal government has been engaged with the industry from the beginning to gather information and understand the situation. We are committed to working closely with the government and all key stakeholders to actively participate in this process.
Looking ahead, we need to continue working with a sense of urgency and to take concrete action toward solving this matter. For example, we need to continue pushing for a science-based resolution that supports a long-term trading relationship with China, and we need to ensure that the two governments are engaging at the highest levels and openly communicating about how to settle this most urgent issue.
Market access issues such as this one hurt our company, our farmers and the economy as a whole. We need to work together and act swiftly to restore access to this very important market.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today.