Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Dylana Milobar

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

B.C cattle industry expecting minimal impact from China’s meat import ban

Jun 27, 2019 | 4:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — After discovering traces of a banned substance (ractopamine) on a pork shipment earlier this month, China has halted accepting Canadian meat products.

The BC Cattlemen’s Association General Manager Kevin Boon says while the situation is not ideal, it doesn’t spell economic disaster for the province’s meat producers.

“With China, about one per cent of what we produce in Canada is what China takes,” he explains. “So it’s not a small number, but it’s not our biggest trading partner by any means.”

Many believe the ban was politically driven, given the recent strained relationship between North America and China.

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However, Boon says African Swine Fever reducing China’s pork production means importing Canadian meat would actually be a benefit to China.

“China produces right now, approximately 50 per cent of the world’s pork. And as such, if they lose a significant part of their own, they’re going to need protein to fill that market. So there is an opportunity there to grow,” Boon says. “So this is one of the other reasons I don’t feel this is politically motivated because you’d be shooting yourself in the foot.”

Boon says the Cattlemen’s Association doesn’t feel that the import stoppage is driven by political disputes, and they’d like to continue the trade relationship with China.

“It’s been indicated that this one may be due to someone that has brought product in from another country and is passing it off as Canadian going over there,” Boon says, “and so we want to stop that. If it’s on our end, especially we want to stop it, because it tarnishes our reputation.”

The ban will remain in place while officials investigate the meat in question to determine whether it was fraudulently labeled to misrepresent an approved Canadian product.