International Trade committee  Thank you very much. It's four more months. Thank you.

International Trade committee  In terms of the genetics they're looking for, they want to raise animals that will be profitable for them. So it's pretty much about commercial genetics; they're not interested in showing animals or anything like that. As far as the number of breeds is concerned, or the number of animals in those breeds, those questions I guess would have to be answered by the people in India.

International Trade committee  The ones we're involved with are mainly the Holstein breeds and some Jersey [Technical Difficulty—Editor].

International Trade committee  Yes. What I said was that three members of CLGA have partnerships in India. When we talk about the diaspora, I mentioned in my opening comments that the three big artificial insemination companies had members of the Indian diaspora as employees and they were thoroughly frustrated.

International Trade committee  Over time the number of farms will decrease. For any country that has a developed dairy industry, including our own, as the number of farms goes down, the number of animals per farm goes up. Overall, nonetheless, the number of animals goes down, which benefits the environment. As India develops, that's going to happen, no question.

International Trade committee  First of all we're not talking about GMOs but normal animal breeding, which these days includes genomics. But we haven't got into really detailed discussions with India about genomics. The problem in India is that they really have no genetic evaluation system, so it's very basic in establishing benchmarks, animal identification, and performance recording.

International Trade committee  It varies, but most of the holdings are small, that is, part of a traditional system. I think the social aspects were mentioned a few minutes ago, that as they modernize the dairy industry there will be huge impacts on the small holders of one or two cows. What are those people going to do if they're not producing milk any more?

International Trade committee  I certainly agree with the comments of my colleagues. I think that was reflected in my presentation about their setting up some technical market-access requirements for bovine genetics. They want to have the same requirements for all countries wanting to export to India. So I think Canada really needs to try to get close to India and to work with the Indians on the basis of science.

International Trade committee  In terms of increasing Canada's trade with India, dairy genetics is not going to add billions but it will add millions and it's new. So it's trade that hasn't happened, and I suggest that Australia and Switzerland aren't participating in that either because it's a new market for everyone.

International Trade committee  Oh, sure, I totally agree with you. That's part of the work that the Saskatchewan Research Council did in looking at the broad issue of the dairy industry in India. So there are opportunities there for more than genetics, and from our point of view we look at providing the genetics and making sure that the dairy producer has all the skills needed for those genetics to perform to their maximum.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity. This is the first week in about four that I haven't been in Ottawa, so the opportunity to do this by video conference is much appreciated. India is a market with great potential for the Canadian livestock genetics sector, and we appreciate the support and assistance offered by the Government of Canada in our daily cooperation with CFIA , Agriculture Canada, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the potential benefits offered by a CEPA.