The Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) says the Chinese market will re-open to Canadian beef — though details are still scant.
“The advocacy work has been ongoing for the last three years,” said CCA president Tyler Fulton.
Why it matters: Canadian beef has been shut out of China for five years.
On January 16, it was announced that China and Canada had reached an agreement to lower tariffs on Canadian products like canola seed and meal. A federal explainer said Canada also expected China to “accelerate the resumption” of imports of Canadian beef.
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Fulton said the CCA learned that beef trade would resume with China when Prime Minister Carney and Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald were in China. They have no details about the deal — including what kind of beef will be allowed into the Chinese market, and what volume of beef will be allowed in.
Canadian beef has not been exported to China since December 2021 when China shut its borders due to an atypical case of BSE in Alberta. Prior to the halt in trade, Canadian beef was seeing “continued growth” in the Chinese market, the CCA said in a news release.
“Just to remind everyone that the issue relates to an atypical case of BSE that was found in 2021. It’s a naturally occurring variant that we found. All the other markets that we shipped to stayed open,” said Fulton, who runs a cow-calf operation near Birtle, Man.
Fulton said the CCA will need to learn about new safeguards, since they haven’t shipped beef to China since 2021.
“We’re optimistic that there will be space for us, and that we can pursue material access that will make a difference for beef producers,” he said.
“We think there’s some unallocated quota that would be available in China that isn’t currently connected to a specific country, and so we’ll pursue that initially. One of the critical aspects here is that some of the cuts coming off a beef carcass can see significant premium in that market,” said Fulton.
“Our hope really is to add extra value to the carcasses here in Canada, by greater access to the big market of China,” he said.
The cattle market benefits when more of the carcass is used, since there are many cuts that aren’t in high demand in North America.
“We can add significant value to the carcass when we have access to some of these markets that desire the niche type products,” he said.
The CCA are pleased with the new trade agreements between Canada and China.
“We’re supportive. We know the bread and butter of the beef industry in Canada is really based on market access. We acknowledge and rely on our biggest trading partner, the U.S. And so, we remain focussed on the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement (CUSMA) and ensuring that we can maintain tariff free access,” said Fulton.
