In the last three years there has been a lot of turmoil in the pork market. The CPTPP has helped Canadian pork producers to alleviate the risk and the impact of a lot of the variation in demand during COVID and also given the fact that, although China is the largest pork importer and consumer, it has decided to reduce tremendously the quantity of pork it imports from Canada. It is important that we diversify our market and increase our resilience.
The office in Manila is a good place to start creating new business arrangements. I would like to mention that it helps not only our country but also the local population. In the Philippines we were discussing with the producers and consumers there, and they were saying that the product they produce is mainly for the domestic market. They are not able to produce for the processing industry or the retail industry, because of the requirement for cold. The process has to be cold all along the way, and it's not always possible for the pork producers there to have reliable cold storage. They rely on our product for food security for their own population. I think that's a good example of how this trade is beneficial to both countries.