Some local cattle producers are looking east with the hope that a burgeoning population in China with a western appetite for meat will provide a lucrative and largely untapped market for their product.
This development was referenced in a presentation made recently at the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association called Cowboys go to China and reflects that country’s move towards a more protein-rich diet.
Cattlemen’s president Duncan Barnett says the industry is just now emerging from the shadow of the BSE crisis that shut export markets to Canadian beef in 2003. More recently cattle prices have been stronger but he says that’s a function of supply and demand; in this case the supply is low because farmers have simply gone out of business.
“We haven’t really solved our marketing problems it’s just the cattle cycle is really helping us out now.”
China might be one answer to the cattle industry’s woes.
Members of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association recently accompanied Pat Bell, minister of forest, mines and lands, on a trade mission to China and Japan to promote B.C. beef.
What they learned was “… Japan is a market for very high quality beef and they presently get a lot of their supply from Australia and they are very, very quality conscious. It’s a good market for us but it will be a difficult one for us to crack. China, on the other hand, is a huge market with all kinds of potential,” Barnett says.
The Canada Beef Export Federation is the body that markets Canadian beef domestically and internationally.
In an August press release the CBEF says Canadian beef exports to “…key markets in Asia and Mexico in the first half of 2010 are up 50 per cent by volume and 70 per cent by value.” Exports to Russia were also up 12 per cent by volume and 70 per cent by value.
China and Russia are referred to as the BRIC countries and include Brazil and India; they are identified as markets with potential growth opportunities for beef product.
In China in particular, “there is a huge population of people who, as they increase the wealth of the middle class, start to eat higher value foods,” Barnett says.
“In China we’re looking at a population that’s moving from predominantly eating rice and grains to eating meat. As they begin eating meat and the growing middle class wants to eat meat. There’s a huge demand; they are finding that they just don’t have the established livestock industry to supply that value of meat so they’re a huge potential export market for us because we have access to China and we can provide a very good quality product for them. They’re quite open to it because they’ve got millions of people who are wanting to eat meat so it’s now a great opportunity.”
The learning curve is steep; as Western and Chinese cultures differ so too do their culinary tastes.
“People will have to kind of experiment with what the market over there wants and what they’re willing to pay and whether they are happy with the quality and the government has to be satisfied with health safeguards and it has to fit in with the balance of trade.”
Barnett knows there are plenty of steps that need to occur before Canadian beef is given unencumbered access to the Chinese market but he’s hopeful.
“I’ve been advocating for a long time and I think it is fantastic that it happened. We’re just getting started.”
