When a case of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy ) is discovered in Canada it sends a shudder through the beef sector as export access can be affected.
Yorkton’s Blaine Buckle learned that all too well recently, as the Chinese closed its borders to Canadian beef following a recent positive test for BSE in an Alberta cow.
The border closure came just days before Buckle was to sign a contract which would have seen him exporting beef directly to China where it would have been distributed through a partnership arrangement to high-end restaurants and import stores.
Buckle said the deal he was working toward came about after several years of effort.
“Five years ago I had the opportunity to go to China,” he said, adding through a family contact he learned of “an opportunity in the agriculture sector.”
The opportunity took some time to get rolling.
“A couple of years later we did a pilot project to feed a few cattle in northern China,” said Buckle.
“We sent some equipment (including a feed Z mixer) over there and feed 100-head of cattle.”
Buckle said the feeder animals were Simmental-influence, and while not of Canadian quality were not bad cattle.
Buckle said the idea of the trial was to see what a Canadian system might do in terms of feeding Chinese cattle.
“We treated them as if we were in North America,” he explained, adding the area of China they were in had weather similar to southern South Dakota.
In terms of feeding the cattle results were very positive.
“The gains and conversion were not as good as here, but they were comparable,” said Buckle.
However, when it came to the sale of the animals, Buckle said he quickly learned having the cattle there with few options left him exposed, and in the end the expected returns vanished.
“A contract wasn’t worth the paper it was written on,” he lamented.
But then another opportunity arose.
“Six-months after that the border opened. Canadian beef (from its first closure which happened after the first Canadian BSE case in 2003) was going back into China,” said Buckle.
The local cattleman said the reopening of the border created an opportunity in his mind.
“We started to focus on that because we thought we had some contacts there,” he said, adding they were also coming to understand the culture in China, which is important in business there.
So, in 2014 through his company, Buckle sent Canadian beef to China.
“We were the first company to legally export beef (Canadian) into mainland China,” he said.
The initial shipment was two containers of beef, “the equivalent of about 100-head of fat cattle,” said Buckle.
The beef was sent over frozen, boneless and in primal cuts and then further processed into strips, cubes and other various vacuumed packed sizes to meet consumer demand.
All the meat is also lab tested to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) standards and CIQ (China’s CFIA) requirements, explained Buckle.
The beef was sourced in Ontario because there was already a packing plant there with licences to go to China, he noted, adding if the market could be secured in the future he would like to work toward a licensed facility in Saskatchewan so that western Canadian beef was being sent.
Buckle said the process of getting the first containers of Canadian beef into China “was very hard,” but he added “we did the market research” ahead of the shipment to make sure they would not lose too much money if issues arose.
Part of the research help came from Saskatchewan’s trade office in Shanghai, said Buckle. A one person posting, he said the provincial presence was a lot of help in their planning, as was the support of Canada Beef Inc.
One element of the plan was seeking out a wholesale partner.
“We focused on one wholesaler who was putting a lot of time and effort into branding the product,” said Buckle, explaining the beef is packaged in red labels which show it as a Canadian product. He noted that is important as the Chinese look at Canada as a source of high quality products.
And the connections worked.
“Between last fall and now our confidence level kept going up,” he said. “They were moving our product.”
Buckle explained the entire beef carcass is cut into tiny cubes and strips to hot pots and smiler dishes.
“It’s the ideal way to market beef,” he said, as it makes the entire animal valuable. “There are no roasts, or steaks.”
Buckle said there were still challenges, such as their beef retailing at three-times the cost of Chinese beef, but it was selling. The future looked bright.
“We were ready to rock and roll,” he said.
Then the BSE case and the border closed.
“The timing was horrible,” said Buckle.
Buckle said at times the CFIA has come under fire for how it has handled BSE, but he said the issue is not how the disease is handled here, but rather how other countries react to an outbreak.
“I think they’ve (the CFIA) done a stellar job,” he said, adding the federal body is part of the reason beef exports to China had returned.
Buckle said the processes now in place in Canada do what they are designed to do.
“It is disappointing to have a world class food safety program being able to detect an animal before it enters to food chain and then it seems like we as a country can get penalized for it,” he said.
“Since 2005 there’s been various cases of BSE found, reported and dealt with,” he said, adding the process has kept that beef out of the food system ensuring consumer safety.
The question now is his long China might keep its borders closed. If it drags on several months Buckle said he will likely abandon his plans.
“They’re saying three, or four months, but it could be years,” he said.
Buckle added it will not be easy to turn away from the potential he sees for Canadian beef in China.
Buckle said even if three per cent of white collar Chinese “ate one pound of Canadian beef in a year it would take one very large packing plant to supply it.”
Buckle said it comes down to new markets for a Canadian farm sector which must export product to be viable.
“Creating new markets will do nothing but strengthen the Canadian Cattle business and hopefully within a short period of time a new generation of cattlemen will be wanting to excel and expand instead of wondering how to make ends meet,” he said.
