Stung by criticism of complacency and drift, beef sector has asked three industry veterans to lead the effort to create a new and better approach
Industry reps in Central Canada have joined their western counterparts in endorsing a strategy to revitalize the country’s beef industry.
The trio leading the effort — Kim McConnell, John Kolk and Dave Andrews — followed up a successful presentation of their five-point strategy at a summit in Calgary last month with an equally successful one in Toronto recently.
“The summits gave us an endorsement to… keep this moving forward, put meat on the bones, and keep this process sound,” said McConnell.
The three industry veterans were asked to undertake the initiative in the wake of a stinging critique by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute last fall that accused the Canadian beef sector of being complacent and lacking a strategy to succeed. It highlighted a number of troubling issues, including that in 2011, Canada received $3.74 for each kilogram of beef it sold in the U.S., while Americans sold us their beef, often from Canadian-raised cattle, at an average of $6.55 a kilogram. It also found American beef exports, on a value basis, have increased six times faster than Canadian ones since 2005.
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The five ‘bones’ of the trio’s plan centre around improved information flow system; clear goals and a simple way to measure progress in achieving them; industry-wide financial support for Canada beef; speaking with a unified voice, and twice-yearly meetings to bring the entire industry together.
Work will continue on the first four this summer and it’s hoped the first national meeting will be held in the fall, McConnell said.
A large number of people from across all sectors of the beef industry have volunteered to work on the initiative. McConnell said they can’t accommodate everyone, so they’ll put people with particular expertise into appropriate groups and the others who volunteered will be asked to review and provide feedback on their work. The trio of McConnell, Kolk and Andrews will help guide the process forward.
It’s been a good start but it’s important to keep the process moving forward, said McConnell, and that will require industry players to be open to change and not interpret observations and suggestions from the working groups as criticism.
Putting everyone from cow-calf operators right to retailers in the same room to discuss the strategy is sure to elicit some opposing viewpoints, but “robust dialogue is good,” McConnell said.
The initiative will also require some limited funding, he said.
