(Resource News International) — Canadian commercial beef shipments to China are likely to end a seven-year absence within the next couple of months, an official with the Canadian Beef Export Federation said.
The Asian country has not accepted Canadian beef products since 2003, when Canada’s first domestic case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was detected.
Chinese officials announced in June the country will be accepting 30-month boneless beef products from Canada.
Cam Daniels, vice-president of the Canadian Beef Export Federation in Calgary, said officials from both countries are ironing out a few of the final details, and that exports should be happening in early 2011 at the latest.
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“What happens if there is a piece of bone in some product? Do they reject just the piece of meat, the box, the full load, does the company get de-listed?” Daniels said. “Those are details that they are working out.”
It’s estimated that Canada’s initial access to China is worth $60 million. Tallow — fat that has industrial application — is expected to be the most valuable part.
Daniels said there is plenty of optimism among Canadian producers with the border now being open, as there is growing demand in China.
“It’s really the sleeping dragon right now. With the number of people that live there, and with it becoming more affluent in that market, there is definitely great opportunity in China,” he said.
Another positive factor for Canadian producers, is that there will be no current competition from Canada’s greatest trading rival. U.S. beef is currently banned from China.
Daniels said the process in which Canadian officials went about handling the shortage was a large reason for China opening their doors.
He credited the Canadian government for being open to the option of a step-by-step process, as opposed to the U.S. tactics, which called for China to allow all types of beef.
All that said, Daniels wasn’t sure how much beef from Canada would be shipped to China.
