by SUSAN MANN
Ontario is studying the ramifications of the recently-announced Russian trade ban on Canadian agricultural products “to better understand how this will impact business,” says Jeff Leal, agriculture, food and rural affairs minister.
In a prepared statement, Leal says he has reached out to the Ontario pork sector as that industry accounts for “the majority of our exports.” In addition, the government remains committed to finding new markets for Ontario-grown foods and products around the world.
In 2013, Ontario exported about $18 million worth of pork and pork products to Russia and that represented seven per cent of Canada’s overall pork and pork product exports to Russia. Quebec represented 63 per cent and Manitoba represented 24 per cent. But Ontario may face some additional impacts depending on how the Russian sanctions, slated to be in place for year, affect Quebec because about 15,000 Ontario pigs a week go to Quebec for processing.
In a separate email, press secretary and communications assistant, Bryan Bossin says in total Ontario’s agri-food exports to Russia in 2013 were about $37 million and that’s about 0.3 per cent of Ontario’s total agri-food exports. The top five Ontario commodities shipped to Russia were:
• Red meats - $18.3 million (the majority of this was pork).
• Poultry and eggs - $6.7 million.
• Other animal products - $3.5 million.
• Animal feeds - $3.2 million.
• Seeds for sowing - $1.6 million.
The trade disruption will have very little impact on the province’s pork farmers says the Canadian Pork Council. “For the most part in Canada we do work off the American price and that price should stay relatively stable because they didn’t have a large Russian market,” spokesman Gary Stordy says.
LeaAnne Wuermli, Beef Farmers of Ontario communications manager, says the sanctions won’t have much of an effect on Ontario beef farmers as Russia is a minor export market. In 2013, Canada exported less than 50 tonnes of beef to Russia. Canada had access to supply boneless beef and bone-in beef from cattle under 30 months of age. But Russia also had stipulations that the beef it imports be hormone and ractopamine free.
Stordy says this isn’t the first time there has been a disruption in Canada’s access to the Russian pork market, which is Canada’s third largest market for pork after the United States and Japan.
Last year, just $260 million worth of Canadian pork was exported to Russia due to a six-month disruption in trade because the Russians wanted ractopamine free pork. “We had to document some of our procedures and certify plants to get them approved to ship to Russia,” he says. The 2013 export number is $232 million less than in 2012 when $492 million worth of Canadian pork was exported to Russia.
But exports seemed to be rebounding this year as from January to May; there was $213 million worth of pork exported to Russia. The Russians were mainly buying frozen pork trimmings and various cuts of meat for use in sausage making and for stews, he says, adding sausages are very popular in Russia.
Stordy says “these are self-imposed sanctions and we’re scratching our head to understand if they fully thought through the impact of their decision.” The big question right now is what happens to products that are in various stages of being transported to Russia, including product in Canadian processing plants that has been packed in containers and is ready to be shipped out, various containers en route to Canadian ports from processing plants, some product in transit on container ships and still more on the ground in Russia waiting to clear customs.
Canadian processors will have to repackage the Russian-destined pork and divert it to another market. While this most recent Russian trade disruption is unwelcome, the Canadian pork industry will be able to work around it, he explains. “We’ve adapted in the past and we can adapt moving forward.”
Since the pork is frozen it can be diverted to other markets but Stordy says it’s too early to say where it will go to. “Fortunately we’re dealing with a situation where pork is in demand” and Canada has the option of shipping to more than 140 countries.
Jim Laws, Canadian Meat Council executive director, estimates 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes of pork are currently on ships bound for Russia. If Russian authorities don’t allow the product to be unloaded “then we will endeavor to get the product returned to Canada or have the ability to redirect it to another customer. It will probably end up coming back to Canada, but we shall see.”
With the 2013 Russian trade impediments, Stordy says the Canadian pork industry was able to find other markets, including the United States and Asia. “We expect to do it in 2014 too.”
The trade disruption will have very little impact on pork farmers. “For the most part in Canada we do work off the American price and that price should stay relatively stable because they didn’t have a large Russian market,” Stordy says.
Russian imposed the agricultural trade sanctions on Canada, the United States and other countries that imposed restrictions on Russia due to its aggressive intervention in Ukraine.
Laws says it’s too early to say how disruptive the sanctions will be on the Canadian meat industry, but it’s mainly pork that’s affected as Canada doesn’t export much beef to Russia. Canada exported $3.2 billion worth of meat in 2013 worldwide and that means “we have a lot of other customers.”
There will probably be a global market shuffle where Russia will buy pork from countries that haven’t imposed sanctions against it and those countries will need additional pork supplies and “we’ll supply it,” he says. BF
Comments
The Russians and the former socialist soviet republic could never feed themselves. Innovative thinking was discouraged, and some of that mentality lives on. According to history I have read, farms had five year 'collective' plans, yet production was always lagging. There was never any incentive to better your farms production, because it all belonged to the state. Rumor has it, that a farmers garden, was better managed than the rest of their farm. In Canada, especially in pork, beef and cashcrop, there more work a farmer puts in, the more they can take out.
Raube Beuerman
As an anonymous poster has pointed out, my use of "rumor has it", is not such a good choice. After I posted that, I came to realize that a much better choice of words would have been 'the fact of the matter was'.
While I appreciate the acknowlegement, it would have been substantially more meaningful for him/her to sign their posting.
Anonymous poster poltroon!!!
Raube Beuerman
If you dont like "rumour has it" and insist on "the fact of the matter" then just once present the facts to back up your statements other wise it really is "coffee shop rumour"
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324575/kulak
I have no clue as to why I am getting challenged on this.
Think about this scenario for just a second. You farm in the former socialist Soviet republic. The state owns almost everything. They confiscate your wealth. Even if you work harder, in no way are you rewarded.
Now who's garden are you going to look after better? Your own or the state?
Raube Beuerman
The fact remains that they will take what ever they want from their garden that you look after and yours . Maybe you should have educated your self on that one !
Got news for you too Buerman. Our government can do exactly the same thing. They can take everything from us too. They have dishonored our COP agreements under FIPA, so in effect farmers are being robbed now. Species at risk, Greenbelt, Water Protection Act, the list goes on. The government is canceling farmers equity without compensation. So what does Russia do different?
When it comes to Canadian farmers equity, our government has been awfully generous, arguably the most generous on the planet. Besides, anything a government does to increase ones equity, can just as easily be taken away.
"So what does Russia do different?"-Can you give examples of Russian agricultural government policies that have greatly affected farmers equity? Aside from banning food imports.
Raube Beuerman
I dont understand how you come to your conclusions. Russian example? Russia was the worlds biggest bread basket until it ran into a severe debt problem at the turn of the last century. The country couldnt service its debts. The ruble became worthless. The leadership was incompetent and the fallout was inevitable. The rest became history.
Don't sweat it . It is just how the know it all , know everything better types like to talk down to people when they are backed into a corner or when they know they made a mistake . They try the emotional excuse then revert to the name calling .
Who needs a history lesson? I think you should pay attention to your own bank account. The feds are fine tuning banking bail-ins. That dollar you have in your wallet does not actual belong to you. Those dollar notes are debt instruments that we borrow from the BoC. If you check out the BoC financial sheets you will see that those dollar notes are listed as a debit to the BoC. That means they can take those notes back any time they want.
To my knowledge, bank depositors and taxpayer funded money are being removed from the proposed bank bail-in legislation.
Raube Beuerman
why is it if the canadian public agree with the govt sanctions,then why is it only pork producers who are being affected. all canadians should be on the hook to suffer the consequences of the govt actions
Every one in the free world are being affected by this a pork producer in the usa will be notice it as much as he's next door neighbor who produces milk or chicken
You must be a pork producer . Thinking of you and only you and your fellow hog producers . If you really believe that it will only affect pork then you are in need of a Mr. Thompson lesson .
I think Canada is the one that didn't fully understand the impact of tagging along with some other Countries in their Sanctions against Russia.Already some in the EU are having 2nd thoughts.
Seriously,does a travel ban on some Russian and Ukrainian groups and some sanctions against banks and financial institutions add up to $321,913,234 lost in export value that Canada had with Russia in 2013 ?? We really didn't know the Russians if we thought they would just sit back without any retaliating
When someone has to resort to 'rumour has it', you know immediately that the argument is baseless. There were many embargoes in the 1980's but movement of goods continued. Some products took the long route stopping in non-embargoed countries but the goods did reach their destinations. I dont think this case will be any different.
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