Canada’s Agriculture Minister says he remains committed to diversifying and expanding the market for Canadian agriculture and agri-food products as his government works to reach its target of 75 billion dollars in agricultural exports by 2025.
The federal Agriculture Minister has concluded his agricultural outreach mission to Argentina and Chile during which he attended the G20 Agricultural Ministers meetings in Buenos Aires.
Lawrence MacAulay told reporters participating in a conference call yesterday his government is committed to grow and diversify trade by opening new doors in new markets, including in South America while striving to reduce Canada’s dependence on trade with the United States.
The U.S. is the biggest trading partner and best friend and we will be always doing a lot of business with them but we want to do more business in Chile and we want to do more business in Argentina and also we want to work with them on science and on the world stage.
We’ve always wanted to diversify our trade. We were very dependant on the U.S. which we always indicate and it’s quite true. We all have family members, we are closely connected in every possible way and are great friends and all that but we want to make sure that we diversify our trade and it’s missions like this that help do that. We sat down with retailers here to find out just how we can promote more agriculture and agri-food products.
What we need to know in areas like this just what problems exist that we can rectify so we can have the Canadian products in Argentina and Chile and around the world. That’s what I am doing and hopefully with a substantial amount of success. As you know the target is 75 billion and we fully intend to meet that figure.
~ Lawrence MacAulay-Canada, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
MacAulay says the efforts are paying off, noting last year Canada’s agriculture and seafood exports hit a new all time record.
