Federal funding allocated for market development will help maintain the Canadian red meat sector’s global competitive position.
The federal government announced yesterday an investment of over one million dollars under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriMarketing program to help expand the red meat sector’s access to international markets.
In collaboration with the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association the Canadian Meat Council will use the funding for inspection visits by international officials to ensure Canadian facilities meet food safety requirements, help build relationships with foreign industry partners and provide timely information and expertise for global trade missions.
Gary Stordy, the Director, Government and Corporate Affairs with the Canadian Pork Council, says the funding will help maintain the sector’s global competitiveness
We sent in an application to achieve a number of things. One is trade advocacy where we have applied for funding to go to a number of key markets, build relationships with some of the stakeholders in those markets. Generally they’re producer organizations, governments equivalent to provincial or federal governments within that country as well as those involved with the actual trade, potential customers.
Our objective is to build those relationships,, understand some of the dynamics and interests that might be in that market and then from there promote and highlight some of the opportunities that we have to supply the product.
~ Gary Stordy, Canadian Pork Council
Stordy notes the pork sector exports over 70 percent of what it produces generating over three billion dollars in sales.
