NMA up to bat for Canadian Beef

[CattleAnnie]

Beef News
NMA seeks status in Canadian beef import case

by Pete Hisey on 9/17/04 for Meatingplace.com



The National Meat Association has asked the United States District Court in Billings, Mont., to grant it intervenor status in a lawsuit filed by the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) against the USDA. R-CALF is attempting to keep the border closed to imported cattle and beef products in the wake of Canada's bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak.

Rosemary Mucklow, NMA executive director, tells Meatingplace.com, "We can reasonably anticipate that (the USDA) will reopen the border," and the NMA wants to be present in court to argue on behalf of beef processors, who have lost business and a source of inexpensive cattle since the import ban went into effect last year.

As the plaintiff in the case, R-CALF will get five days notice of the publication of a final rule as well as regular updates. NMA wants the same rights so that it can present the free-trade argument opposing R-CALF's protectionist position.

Mucklow said that many slaughterhouses and processors have had to lay off workers, and at least one shut down altogether, due to lower volume of live cattle.

"NMA advocates the earliest possible reopening of the U.S./Canada border to imports of healthy slaughter cattle, believing that this is beneficial both to consumers and the firms that slaughter and process cattle," the association said in a statement. "Intervenor status will provide NMA the opportunity to participate if R-CALF uses the current litigation to unduly delay resumption of trade."

It's snowing again up here in northeastern BC, so heads up to you folks east and south of us. Take care.

[farmers_son]

Thanks for the information. The NMA has always been onside with Canada on this issue. I think we will need to see the U.S. and Japan work out their differences before we see the USDA final rule announced. I do not foresee R-Calf fighting the final rule. R-Calf has really been a pawn of the U.S. administration who have used them to take the blame for U.S. delaying tactics. Once the USDA and the U.S. administration decide to open the border to our live cattle, it will happen and happen quickly.

[wd40]

We don't need the border open. We need
1. Canadian owned packer capaccity. (Cargill is currently making around $1.5 M per day.
2. We need our Govt. to help make that happen, (they are about to do that).
3. We need to never export another live animal but ship them in a box first.

[pandiana]

Right on! WD40 We need to stay focused on measures that will open more doors and lessen our dependence on a market whose doors open or close willy nilly at any opportunity to provide an advantage for their interests.

[frustrated1]

Now we're on the right track! In a box from a canadian plant. Let's ship it straight to whatever places it's going to end up at when it goes through the neighbours plants anyhow. Let that l.5 million stay in canadian hands.

Seems there's more of us thinking this way all the time. Let's keep it up. And let's keep the border closed a while longer to make sure it gets in motion.

[farmers_son]

Now hold on people. I would love to see all our beef leave this country in a box too but how far away is that? 2006 at the earliest. There is at least two fall runs of calves before then. And does anyone doubt that the border will be open before 2006, I don’t doubt it. Given that the border will open, sooner is better than later. We don’t need to see the border closed for any longer, we have learned the lessons. I think the delay in announcing the USDA final rule is delaying the start of construction of our much needed packing plant capacity because it doesn’t make sense to invest that money until you know the rules of the game. The present uncertainty is hurting our industry as much as anything. Time to get it settled and get on with it.

[cakadu]

I think there is much more to the delayed start-up of Canadian packing plants than just waiting for the USDA to open the border.

Some people are just waiting for the border to open, others have no money to put into packing plants, opposition to packing plants going into various areas, competing for dollars for packing plants, no success story to have a look at etc. I don't believe it's not as simple as just holding our collective breaths waiting for the border to open. It might be that our leadership is doing that, but many producers certainly aren't.

I'm curious to know from you as to how long you think it would take for things to go back to the status quo, if the only thing we do right now is wait for the border to open?

[grassfarmer]

Hmmm... I've just noticed that "farmers_son" contains the letters to make "rsomer" .... coincidence?

[jensend]

grassfarmer - i don't think so; same arguments, same logic - you can't get there from here.

[jensend]

The goals that WD40 pointed out are goals for our industry whether the border opens or not.

It could be agrued that mulinational companies are in every sector of our economy, and they work well.

However we have just lived through a year of Multinational profit taking on the backs of those who supply them with product. If this kind of immoral activity were to occur in any other industry, would that industry not look at change.

I was as accepting as most of the system we had prior to May 20, 2003, and I have always said to my marketer, I don't really care what you make, as long as you treat me fair.

We have not been treated fair, even though it was legal, and acceptable to the business world.

It was/is not civil or ethical, and I do not think that Canadian producers can ever forget that.

Our arguement against treatment from the packers is nothing like the argument from producer groups in the USA. This is one very special case. This is a case of disrespect, and arguments to curb mutinational packer domination in Canada will forever have this period of time for reference.

I believe the proactive approach is to take our industry back rather than challenge them or blame them. They have shown their colors, now lets show ours.

[cakadu]

The one line in that article that Annie posted that is the most disturbing is:

"...who have lost business and a source of inexpensive cattle since the import ban went into effect last year."

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

[cowman]

With all due respect...other than a cow plant, do we really need a lot more capacity? Maybe right now but what about when the border opens?
There was a reason the Canadian owned packing plants shut down and that reason was they couldn't compete with Cargill/IBP. And the fact is the Tory government picked the winners with sweetheart deals that no one else got? XL was so far in the hole to the government that they couldn't go down(were probably basically given to Neilsons)?
Now that isn't to say that "niche" type plants can't make it but no way can a Canadian plant go head to head with the big American companies...especially with the total lack of Canadian laws to protect the smaller guy?
I suspect we are probably looking at a very long time until the border opens for cows? So I would think a cow plant makes sense, but a regular fat plant? I suspect that will be quite a risky business? But hey, it's your money.
The day the border opens up to young stuff is the day they pour across the border? We might have some people up here who will not want to participate in that market but the majority will sell to the highest bidder?
This notion that somehow we are going to compete with these big boys is in fact a pipedream? Remember Petro-Can and how they were going to compete? Well billions of dollars later we know the answer?

[farmers_son]

Since the topic is the NMA or National Meat Association it might be of interest to for Canadian producers to have a primer on Who’s Who in the North American meat business.

The National Meat Association is a non-profit industry association that has served the meat industry since 1946. The NMA provides a variety of services, from one-on-one regulatory assistance to legislative representation, to its members the most notable of which is Tyson Foods. Cargill, Excel and Swifts are not members.

The American Meat Institute (AMI) is the nation's oldest and largest meat and poultry trade association, founded 1906. AMI is dedicated to increasing the efficiency, profitability and safety of meat and poultry trade worldwide.
Notable members include Cargill, Excel and Swifts but not Tyson Foods.

The Canadian Meat Council (CMC) serve as the vehicle to express the collective views of the membership and to speak for the meat packing/processing industry in Canada and to contribute to the competitiveness of the industry domestically and internationally. The CMC is lead by the U.S. multinationals Tyson Foods and Cargill. Sunterra of Calgary is also a member.

http://www.meatami.com/Content/AboutAMI/AMIMembership/AMIMembercompanies/memberlinks.htm
http://www.nmaonline.org/html/links.htm
http://www.cmc-cvc.com/english/regular_members_e.asp

[rusty1]

"but no way can a Canadian plant go head to head with the big American companies." Cowman I'm disapointed at you're dogmatizm.
1) If we need to find a way, (and I think we can) lets get out of our box thinking ans see? May-be we can. What if we find a way? We never will find a way if we continue to think we CAN'T. I don't believe that's the way you started and run you're ranch, and I know that's not the way the "west was won".
2) I challenge every one of you to sit down and do a "SWOT" anaylaysis.
a)Streangths, 2)Weakness, 3)Opportunity, 4) Threats to the question, Can we build a packing plant owned by producers and be sucessful?

You'll be surprised, "WE CAN DO IT" that's exactly why the 3 locals are tripping over each other to pick up the slack and are trying to scare us into thinking we can't do it.

The REAL questions we should ask are
a) DOwe need to build our own PP?
b) How are do we?
c)What do we need to do to be sucessful.

Send you're SWOT anayalisys to
beef@cowboylogic.biz

I'll compile and report if you like.

WWe ahve done a SWOT study and a lot of further study, and are totaly convinced that it can work. Infact the movement in the US is toward a lot of smaller plants that are working and that's further rerason as to why the big 3 want our borders open, because they are having a harder time competing.

[cakadu]

Part of the reason that smaller plants could work is that they DON'T or WON'T go head to head with the big boys. That one is pretty much a no brainer.

A really good example of how this can work is in the pork industry in the US. One of the big players down there in pork is Smithfield foods. I have been wracking my brain trying to think of the name of the smaller company that is doing a lot of value-added pork products like various types of hams etc., but the name is escaping me right now. The point being that they are doing extremely well simply because they are flying below the radar of Smithfield.

Remember that a smaller plant is far more capable of meeting customer demands because there is less of a "machine" to turn around. Cargill and Tyson can't compete with any speed to shifting consumer demands, whereas a smaller plant can. They may eventually catch up, but if you've done your homework, then you can hopefully stay one step in front of them.

Rusty is right - you won't know until you try.

If I remember correctly cowman, I think at the time, there were a lot of other forces and influences that were pushing towards the consolidation and harmonization of the industry at the same time these companies were being invited in. If people/organizations and government had not all bought into the idea of sending live cattle over the border, thereby watching the value go down the road in the truck, and if they had not bought into the current system, then these packing plants would not have been put into the position that they now find themselves in.

The important thing is that now people have seen the light and they want to make changes, that will hopefully be for the better for producers in particular. There is no harm in trying.

There is an old Japanese proverb: Knocked down 7 times, get up 8 times.

You aren't beaten until you let yourself get beat.