Can Canada’s beef producers benefit from online sales?

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This is the second post in our Spotlight on the Speakers series, featuring speakers from February’s Alberta Beef Industry Conference.

In our first post, we looked at the changing faces, places and consumption patterns of the Canadian beef market. This week, we’re learning how the retail trend toward online sales will affect beef producers.

Don Close, vice-president of food and agribusiness research at Rabo AgriFinance, explained that brick and mortar sales are flat, while online sales are growing and evolving. “I don’t think it’s necessarily detrimental to the beef industry,” he said. “It’s more that it provides an opportunity to access consumers via a different channel.”

“The biggest change,” Don said, “will be experienced by beef processors. They should expect changes in where they are delivering, servicing and distributing products to consumers. For most individual producers there will likely not be any meaningful change.”

Online opportunities

For those beef producers keen to take advantage of the trend, the online market offers a unique opportunity to establish their own branded products. “It opens up a new marketplace for individual producers, particularly if they have cattle with an exceptional set of genetics and want to capture a premium price for their premium product,” said Don.

Online sales could potentially provide beef producers with the ability to promote beef to consumers who are more typically non-consumers, or light-consumers, of beef. It could also provide an opportunity to persuade beef eaters to try different cuts or products.

Don explained that the biggest hurdle to creating meaningful sales via the online market is the investment required in branding, marketing and online sales tools.

“The tendency of the consumer is to choose large, national brands with a known identity,” said Don. “They have a high level of trust with those providers and they know what to expect. They are less likely to try the smaller, lesser-known brand.”

The sales and marketing resources necessary to make an impact on the online food market could potentially be more accessible to groups or collectives, rather than individual producers, he added.

You can hear more from Don in this video entitled ‘From the cart to the keyboard: how food purchasing habits will impact the beef industry’.

 

Secure labour sources needed to meet $75-billion ag-export goal

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In 2017, the federal government challenged Canada’s agricultural producers to reach an export target of $75 billion by 2025 – fully $20 billion more than current levels. The government has identified agriculture as one of a handful of sectors that could spur economic growth.

Yet the huge potential for increased global trade for Canadian agri-foods is likely to go unfulfilled unless the agriculture sector’s chronic labour crisis is resolved.

Temporary foreign workers

The importance of temporary foreign workers to Canada’s farmers has been explained in previous blog posts. When farmers cannot find enough domestic workers to help them run their operations, access to temporary foreign workers, and the ability to keep them in the country, is crucial to the growth of the sector.

Proposed changes to the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program and to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program are making it harder for farmers to access that labour lifeline.

Youth unemployment

We spoke with Joe Hersch, managing director of Youth Jobs Canada, who said that young Canadians could also be part of the solution.

“Unemployment rates among youth are in the range of 13 to 14 per cent,” said Joe. “That’s about double the Canadian unemployment rate, which stands at around seven per cent”.

Youth Jobs Canada is the only national employment website that focuses strictly on youth. It makes employment resources available to youth, and helps bridge the divide between them and potential employers. “We wanted to give youth the tools that they need to go after jobs, but also to allow employers to post jobs,” Joe continued.

The response to the site, which launched in October 2017, has been very favourable among employers, but the uptake among youth is growing more slowly. Joe commented that job seekers can sometimes be unrealistic in terms of the level at which they expect to enter a career path.

Youth Jobs Canada is building awareness among young people, primarily through work fairs and social media.

“Social media is where young people live,” said Joe, “and if you can direct your message through social media that’s how you can make sure you’re being seen. Having that interaction is so valuable, so that youth feel comfortable that we’re identifying with what they need.”

Services such as Youth Jobs Canada are valuable tools in the agricultural sector’s recruitment toolkit. Some others include Acme School’s Career Connections, Alberta 4-H, Ag in the Classroom and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Green Certificate Program. Nonetheless, support from the government is the best hope our agricultural producers have of a viable solution to this long-term challenge.

Why our high standards of animal care make Canadian beef the best

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Canada’s beef producers are committed to raising their cattle in a comfortable, low-stress environment. Healthy animals under good care produce a better product. Our producers realize that caring for, and respecting, the animals that feed us is the right thing to do.

“We’re proud of our production practices and how we look after the cattle in our care,” said Bryan Walton, ACFA’s president and CEO. “The way we raise our animals is integral to providing premium Alberta beef to the world.”

Here at ACFA, we have championed several initiatives that help our members meet or exceed best practices and regulations:

National Beef Code of Practice

In association with industry partners and the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), we helped develop the National Beef Code of Practice. The code, which was developed in conjunction with animal welfare and enforcement representatives, as well as experts in beef cattle behaviour, health and welfare, defines the base standards of animal care.

Canadian Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Program

This fully auditable program, which is certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO), provides cattle feeders with a way to assess their animal care practices and demonstrate their high standards. Consumers increasingly rank animal welfare as an important factor in their buying decisions and this program provides confidence in an integral segment of beef production.

Industry collaboration

We collaborate with important animal care organizations like Alberta Farm Animal Care, and participate in programming such as the Canadian Livestock Transport Certification Program. This is a standardized course offering certification that is recognized throughout Canada and the United States. The program is led by an industry initiative to address the need for increased accountability and improved handling practices in livestock transport. One of the main strengths of Canadian Livestock Transport is that the courses present the current regulations for animal transport in Canada.

The basis for these programs is scientific knowledge about the needs of animals. Through training and experience, and with the guidance of accredited veterinarians and animal nutritionists, our industry members produce healthy, delicious food in an ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible manner.

If you’re still not convinced that Canada’s beef cattle are cared for in the most compassionate, respectful way possible, check out ‘3 feedlot myths busted’.

Foot-and-mouth disease strategy crucial for Canada and cattle feeders

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Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious virus that can affect cattle, sheep and swine. When an outbreak hits any livestock producer’s operation, the results can be devastating, with the potential for entire herds, or even an industry, to be decimated.

The Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA), is concerned that Canada is not sufficiently prepared for an outbreak. This needs to be addressed by both the Canadian government and our own industry.

“The Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association and the National Cattle Feeders’ Association (NCFA) are continuing to elevate the importance of readiness for a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Canada,” said Bryan Walton, ACFA’s president and CEO. “One crucial aspect is access to a vaccine, and a policy around vaccination for FMD in Canada.”

In March 2018, a delegation of government and industry representatives, including Bryan Walton and Ryan Thompson, visited Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) in Lyon, France, to learn more about its production capabilities for an FMD vaccine.

“FMD is a serious issue, so it was good to have an industry-government delegation in Lyon, to see the facility and talk about the path forward,” said Ryan Thompson, NCFA board chair. “We all need to work together to make sure our members are able to have a strategy to deal with an outbreak.”

Some background

The North American FMD Vaccine Bank is a resource jointly administered by commissioners from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. However, the U.S. is seeking government funding to create a ‘US only’ vaccine bank because, in today’s intensive livestock industry, they see it as the only way to ensure their producers have access to the required number of vaccines, regardless of strain. There is concern that with their own private resource, their support for the North American bank will diminish.

If Canada does not take similar measures it puts the entire beef industry at risk.

Boehringer Ingelheim has the technology to produce sufficient quantities of an effective, DIVA-compliant (Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) FMD vaccine – potentially within five days of receiving the request.

Next steps

“The meeting has triggered strong interest among both industry and government leaders, in looking at the greater use of vaccination strategies in Canada’s livestock industry, in the event of an FMD outbreak,” said Bryan. “Greater use of vaccination would require several other strategies to be fully and effectively implemented by industry — like an immediate ‘voluntary cease movement’ – also referred to as a 48 or 72-hour standstill – and use of packing plants to slaughter for disposal rather than consumption.”

Vaccination would greatly reduce the need for a ‘stamping out’ strategy, involving mass depopulation and disposal. That would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement in larger operations, and is increasingly considered unacceptable by the general public.

“A very pertinent question for Canada relates to how we re-gain FMD-free status after the deployment of the vaccine,” continued Bryan. “It is most likely that the process of regaining FMD free status in Canada or North America, as recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health, OIE, would take a year or more from the incidence of an outbreak. This will depend in part on whether the control measures involve ‘stamping out’, which would enable faster recognition, or vaccination, which would result in a longer time for recognition. It is important to note that once OIE recognition of FMD-free status is obtained, it would take longer still to re-establish market share.”

Industry members and government have set up a meeting for April 20, 2018, to begin discussion of a ‘made in Canada’ FMD vaccination strategy, taking into account what that would require from both industry and government.

FMD is just one of ACFA’s initiatives aimed at helping beef producers raise healthy animals in a low-stress environment. You can learn about other actions being taken in ‘Animal health initiatives from Alberta’s cattle feeders’.