Canada Pork International is confident Ukraine has the potential to become an important export market for Canadian pork.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada is assessing the level of interest in initiating negotiations aimed at establishing a bilateral free trade agreement with Ukraine.
Canada Pork International executive director Martin Lavoie says we have a history of exports to Ukraine but it’s not representative of the full market potential.
The Ukraine has a lot of potential for Canadian pork exports.
I think if you look at the countries with whom we have free trade agreement talks, I would says after Korea and the EU this is probably the most interesting country for Canada and the one that has the most potential.
A lot of the free trade agreements that Canada has so far were with smaller countries with limited pork imports but really this is one that can really help the pork industry.
Just with three companies basically approved right now, because it’s a plant by plant inspection system, we’ve been exporting 12 million dollars last year.
This is despite basically half of the year with the financial crisis and the currency in the Ukraine.
If your look at our history of exports to the Ukraine the average dollar per kilo is one of the highest.
It’s over three dollars per kilo.
Last year, this year too, we exported a lot of bone-in hams, some trimmings, some other cuts but it’s definitely a market that has a high dollar per kilo ratio.
Lavoie says, considering the lack of progress in efforts to establish a multilateral trade agreement through the World Trade Organization there is a need to focus on these bilateral agreements.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
