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I was recently asked to complete an email interview on African swine fever, the Chinese pork industry and Canadian exports. I thought it might make an interesting blog post here as well. Q1: Explain the impact of African swine fever in China, the world’s largest consumer of pork, on Canada’s pork industry. African swine fever is ravaging the Chinese swine industry. It has high rates of mortality and is very contagious. The virus can live for a long time in meat so even ship

China continues to put up new barriers to trade for Canadian food products. Each action is built on the pretence of a technical issue, contamination in canola seed, and banned products and forged documentation for pork. While there remains some disagreement as to the validity of the complaints, it seems relatively clear from the timing (Meng Wanzho’s arrest and perhaps an upcoming federal election) that politics is playing a primary role in motivating these actions. There con

Export trade has been an important part of Canada’s agriculture and food economy. Half of what we produce in this country is sold in international markets at a value of $56 billion. Trade is also important for food processor representing about 1 in 4 jobs. One of the drivers for developing new trade agreements and partnerships is to expand opportunities for Canadian products. In the past we have had trade disputes with a variety of countries. There have been complaints about