Mr. Speaker, when the Canadian agri-food sector established that target of $20 billion in agri-food sales by the year 2000, the trade amounted to about $13.5 billion per year. That was in 1992-93.
All of the trade figures are in for 1995 and they are $17.4 billion. That is up 12.6 per cent from the previous year and nearly 30 per cent over that period of 1992-93. The figures are up in the United States, in Asia and in many markets around the world for Canadian agri-food products.
The goods news is that every $1 billion increase in our agri-food sales abroad translates into at least 7,500 jobs for Canadians.