Japan + Manitoba Equals........

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Texan

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........bad news for US? Chances are......


Japanese beef plant for CAN?

Japan interested in Man. cattle


By Ian Bell
Brandon bureau


There have been some preliminary queries this year from Japanese interests contemplating whether to establish a cattle slaughter plant in Manitoba.

Betty Green, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, said she has heard of at least two meetings in Manitoba that discussed the topic of a cattle slaughter plant to supply Japan.

While the discussions appear quite preliminary, she said it is encouraging that additional slaughter capacity is contemplated.

"We're delighted that there's some interest being shown in our province. There's clearly a void which creates those kinds of opportunities."

The void Green is referring to is the limited amount of slaughter capacity in the province, particularly plants that are federally inspected and capable of exporting beef out of the country.

Because of that, Manitoba has been forced to rely heavily on the slaughter capacity of Alberta and the United States.

That reliance became a problem when the U.S. border closed last year to imports of Canadian live cattle following the discovery of BSE in an Alberta cull cow. The result has been a backlog of cattle and weakened prices for the animals.

The Western Producer was told that a meeting was held in Brandon about a month ago to talk about Japanese interest in a cattle slaughter plant in Manitoba.

The source said that one possibility was construction of a plant worth about $40 million, although that idea was also described as preliminary.

Green said she also has heard talk about a plant being built worth $30-$40 million. Although she knows of no definite plans for such an undertaking, she said her association has made it clear there's a willingness to consider extra measures related to things like BSE testing that might be needed to attract further slaughter and processing capacity to Manitoba.

"Back in June, during the World Meat Congress (in Winnipeg), we sent out a very important signal to the international beef importing countries, that if they would clearly identify what their demands were, what their expectations were, we would look at meeting those on a contract basis.

"If they were willing to contract for a product, we would certainly be open to looking at what their demands or their requirements were," Green said.

producer.com
 
Texan- Could this be a reply to the fact the USDA, NCBA, and US controlled multinational packers ( which anymore are almost one in the same)will not agree to or allow 100% BSE testing-- The Japanese definitely want our product- but they want it by their rules not be told what they want--

If the US beef industry won't supply it-- we'll build our own industry in Canada...................
 
That's kinda the impression I get, Oldtimer.

But let me ask you this--Do you think the Canadians would be willing participants in it if the US was a trustworthy trade partner? Personally, I don't think they would have been very interested in talking about it if we had opened the border in a timely manner. But we've built a fire under 'em now, haven't we?
 
Texan;

Interesting that you came across that before I did. I used to live in Brandon and I've met Ian Bell before, writes for the Western Producer I think. That would be really good news for us in Manitoba. Just wonder how long it would take to get that up and running. I don't think it will be in time to finish this years calf crop. Maybe, next spring's calves. Oh well, I guess that's why they call this 'Next year country' LOL.
 
Texan":3hnw4yp9 said:
That's kinda the impression I get, Oldtimer.

But let me ask you this--Do you think the Canadians would be willing participants in it if the US was a trustworthy trade partner? Personally, I don't think they would have been very interested in talking about it if we had opened the border in a timely manner. But we've built a fire under 'em now, haven't we?

Texan-- I really hope the Canadians can get their beef industry up and running- I don't think competition against the Big 3 multinational packers will hurt any of us--I truly doubt that they will be able to establish an industry as easy as they think they can ( with or without Japanese help)- the big packers have a gravy train going now- Buy cheap Canadian cattle, slaughter it, ship it into or thru the US and sell it as a US product at US prices-- They had the same before the BSE border closure- they used their own live cattle out their own Canadian feedlots to manipulate the US price--they are not going to give this up willingly------ Just like they won't allow Creekstone and some of the other smaller packers to test---

I've seen many smaller packers with good intentions and plans startup in the US over the past 20 years and within 5 years the multinationals had broke them-- I wouldn't bet 50 cents on any of the proposed private Canadian packers still being privately owned 5 years from now.............
 
Oldtimer,

That's going to be the big huddle with Canada. Get their own country men to start up something for there own country and those darn 3 packers are going to do what they did to the smaller US slaughter houses. Shut everyone down. Then Canada still won't have their own owned packing plant.
 

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