International Trade committee  Actually, what's great about that is that we stumbled on the fact that our products are both gluten- and lactose-free because consumers came to us and told us that ours was the only product their children could eat. We figured out what lactose intolerance and celiac disease were and so forth.

International Trade committee  Likewise, being that we're not anticipating selling into the marketplace for the foreseeable future, we do not anticipate creating any jobs at this time. However, as I mentioned, within the Canadian meat industry we expect an increase of over $1 billion in revenue, and within that and especially on the meat-producing side, we anticipate there to be—

International Trade committee  I wish that the European names would not be protected in the Canadian marketplace.

International Trade committee  It's not fair.

International Trade committee  In principle I find that a bad thing, from the perspective that if there are products that are great from here, if we're giving up GIs, I believe we should be gaining GIs in exchange.

International Trade committee  I have the advantage of coming from a German family, so everything is quite regimented in terms of performance, recipes, and such. Our family started in 1844. We came in 1954 to B.C., and we will be 60 years this year in this province. At the end of the day on our side, obviously passion is absolutely the word, but likewise, we've always been prepared to take less in terms of profitability in order to produce what we think is a better product.

International Trade committee  No.

International Trade committee  We're looking more at the latter. I think that's the greater opportunity for us. The only thing I would foresee is we have a great opportunity within snack foods. Snack foods in North America are much more significant than in Europe. If there are traditional items for here that we might be able to provide there, that would be of some interest.

International Trade committee  I'm not familiar with any current tariff that we would be paying in our category. It might be buried in the cost. It's certainly not highlighted.

International Trade committee  But that's where there was a particular concern for us.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I haven't read the.... You know, I don't know where the details are within it, but in the last version I saw, the GIs, the geographical indications, weren't really spelled out as to which ones would fall or which ones wouldn't fall. That's why I'm not familiar with this.

International Trade committee  Really all of our machinery comes from Europe, predominantly Germany but also Italy, France, and Austria.

International Trade committee  Well, without giving away trade secrets, we're looking to produce an organic salami. It's very difficult to find sufficient organic meat supply within Canada. As such, while we've had partnerships with local farmers in B.C. and Alberta, it isn't possible for us to get the supply we require.

International Trade committee  Likewise. I'd say we've explored it to a certain degree, but the biggest challenge for us has been on the retail side, to get the retailers to buy into some of those strategies and provide a shelf space for some sort of cross-merchandising.