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Canadian Food Strategy:Implications for Livestock and Meat SectorDr. Michael Bloom

Vice-President, Industry and Business StrategyThe Conference Board of Canada

Canadian Meat Council 94th Annual Conference, May 9 2014

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•To create a shared vision for the future of food in Canada articulated in a Canadian Food Strategy - to meet Canada’s need for a coordinated action plan for change.

•To raise public awareness of the nature and importance of the food sector to Canada’s economy and society.

Centre for Food in Canada - Purpose

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• Desire for action driven by economic opportunities and worries, safety incidents, health pressures, environmental concerns, and the fundamental societal & psychological significance of food.

• Rising expectations of people, firms, public institutions, governments—that Canada will be more proactive and collaborative about food and food issues.

Demand for Canadian Food Strategy (CFS).

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Pressure for System Change.

• Pressure for system change building due to macro-trends, including:– Changing consumer expectations– Safety concerns– Diet and health issues – fueled by

demographics– Rising global demand for food– Technological and scientific advances– Green house effects, water shortages and

other environmental impacts

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•Research – major themes and issues

•Surveys – household and industry

•Dialogue

•Consultation

• International analysis - national strategies

Four Year Process to Develop Canadian Food Strategy (CFS).

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20 Research Reports

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20 Research Reports

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• 20 live consultations across Canada involving hundreds of organizations and large numbers of individuals.

• 1,000+ organizations and individuals contributed comments on-line.

• More than 5,000 individuals involved in CFS-related events and surveys.

• Vital in building a Canadian Food Strategy with broad relevance and appeal.

Consultation.

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•March 18-19, 2014 in Toronto

•Released the Strategy

•Presented plans for promoting action on the Strategy and tracking national performance in the food sector.

Canadian Food Strategy Launched at 3rd National Food Summit

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The Canadian Food Strategy.

• Comprehensive, action-oriented framework to guide and stimulate change in food and the food system.

• Driven by opportunity and imperative:• Opportunity to achieve much – economic,

health, social, environmental.• Imperative to address challenges and

concerns—regarding prosperity, health, safety, security, environment.

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Content & Structure

• Emphasizes opportunities available to food sector domestically, internationally.

• Balances three facets of economic activity: • global competitiveness. • national capacity.• local specialization.

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Net Food Exporting Countries

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

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Content & Structure

• Builds on Canada’s advantages – e.g. emphasizes our Canada brand and product brand potential—yielding advantages in international food markets, as well-known producers of safe and healthy foods.

• Several national strategies around the world take a similar approach: e.g. Scotland, Australia, Sweden.

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Canadian Food Strategy Pyramid.

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Five Elements.

• Industry Prosperity

• Healthy Food

• Food Safety

• Household Food Security

• Environmental Sustainability

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• Goal 1: The food sector is viable and prosperous.

• Goal 2: The food sector is innovative, competitive and growing.

• Goal 3: Up-to-date policies, laws, and regulations address food industry and household interests.

• Goal 4: Canadians eat healthier and have balanced diets.

Eight Goals.

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• Goal 5: Canadians have low rates of diet-related chronic diseases.

• Goal 6: Canada is the world leader in food safety.

• Goal 7: All Canadians have access to safe, nutritious and affordable food.

• Goal 8: The food sector is an excellent environmental performer that increases food production sustainably.

Eight Goals.

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• 62 Desired Outcomes • Outcomes that would contribute to success in

achieving the eight objectives.

• 110 Action Strategies• Types of action (e.g. trade deals) that would

generate the desired outcomes.

• 400 + Specific Actions• Policies, programs, investments, promotional

activities, collaborations and partnerships.

The Rest of the Pyramid

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1st Element: Industry Prosperity.

Strategic Challenge.

Canada must improve the competitiveness of its food industry in order to ensure that it can feed all Canadians, contribute to national economic growth, sustain local specialization, and be more competitive in global markets.

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Goal 1: The food sector is viable and prosperous.

Emphasizes that all three levels of economic activity are complementary and increasingly integrated (not trade-offs).

A strong national food economy performance, profitable local production, and greater competitiveness in global markets stem from common factors (e.g. resources, expertise, innovation, investment etc.)

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Sources of Potential Gain

• Increase capital investment in food businesses, innovation and commercialization of R&D into inputs, products and processes.

• Enhance management skills.• Strengthen value chains and supply chains,

and expand trade. • Maximize production for domestic niche

markets and premium international brands.

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Desired Outcome and Action Strategy.

1.2 Desired Outcome

International Trade is Liberalized

1.2 Action Strategy

• Improve exporters’ access to international markets through government-negotiated multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements.

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Specific Actions

1.2 Specific Actions

• Complete Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

• Complete Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.

• Complete bilateral trade deals with 60 countries, now under negotiation.

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•Trade is essential for meat sector as it produces more than can be sold domestically.

•Higher export sales = higher returns and margins.

•Greater access to global markets (through CETA, TPP, South Korea trade deals) is key.

•Greater harmonization and cooperation is needed with EU and US – remove unnecessary barriers.

•Need to adapt to export market requirements and import rules, e.g. hormones free.

Implications for Meat Sector.

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Desired Outcome and Action Strategies

1.3 Desired OutcomeCanada’s Food Brands are Internationally Renowned and Widely Sold

1.3 Action Strategies• Develop high quality national, provincial and

regional food brands and product specializations for wide sale in international markets.

• Build a Canada Brand to reinforce food brands and products using positive images of Canada’s natural environment and culture, and our reputation for product quality and safety.

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Specific Actions.

1.3 Specific Actions

• Develop regional product specialization to produce, for export, premium and provenance products, such as Alberta Beef, Bison, free-range chicken, Quebec cheeses, for instance.

• Highlight geographical indications (e.g. terroirs or appellation d’origine contrôlée) and link to regional agro-tourism promotion.

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•Build on Canada’s strengths in:–Grading.–Cattle identification.–Consistent quality.–Food safety standards.

•Emphasize health benefits, taste;•Promote desirable attributes and world-class genetics;

•Showcase Canadian products in trade missions, media etc.

Implications for Meat Sector.

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Goal 2: The Food Sector is Innovative, Competitive and Growing.

2.6 Desired OutcomeFood Traceability Wins International Customers for Canadian Products

2.6 Action Strategies• Implement a universal “one-forward, one-

back” food traceability system in Canada and help firms build their traceability capacity so they can participate.

• Promote more comprehensive food traceability for food supply chains and value chains.

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•Calls for better traceability systems and tools grow louder.

•Traceability can improve a company’s supply chain management that cut costs.

• Improves consumer trust and industry efficiency.

•Challenges (complexity, globalization, poor communication, limited participation) hamper the efficiency and effectiveness of food traceability initiatives.

Sources of Potential Gain.

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Specific Actions.

2.6 Specific Actions

• Implement a universal one-step forward, one-step back traceability system in Canada.

• Provide support and expertise for small and medium-sized food enterprises to build traceability capacity.

• Use food traceability advances to demonstrate Canada’s advantage over competitor countries.

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3rd Element: Food Safety.

Strategic Challenge.

Canada should strive to become the top food safety performer in the world, to safeguard the health of its people and to strengthen its competitiveness.

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Goal 6: Canada is the world leader in food safety.

Highlights ways to enhance domestic safety performance and build trust in our food supply, and minimize firm-level economic losses by solving safety problems quickly and effectively.

This would enhance Canada’s already strong international brand as a source of safe and healthy food, boosting our competitiveness in global markets.

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Desired Outcome and Action Strategies.

6.2 Desired OutcomeFood System Incidents and Breakdowns are Resolved Quickly and Transparently

6.2 Action Strategies• Implement a universal traceability system

to increase accuracy of diagnosis and speed of response to incidents.

• Improve multi-jurisdictional collaboration, surveillance activities, outbreak responses, and food safety investigations.

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Specific Actions.

6.2 Specific Actions

• Increase frequency of food inspections of imported foods and food ingredients.

• Augment and harmonize systems of private food safety standards.

• Benchmark safety practices in all parts of the food system.

• Make premises identification mandatory.

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•Food safety is critically important for the meat industry – must maintain focus.

•Use leadership in food safety and animal health to market animals and products.

•Build on Canada’s reputation (disease-free etc).•SMEs face unique challenges to improving food safety, e.g. costs, lack of expertise, time, low awareness, and workplace culture.

•Harmonization and cooperation with US regulatory system opens US market further – but scale, inspection challenges.

Issues and Opportunities for Meat Sector.

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5th Element: Environmental Sustainability.

Strategic Challenge.Canada’s production of food and export levels need to be increased sustainably, while minimizing environmental impacts, and improving performance compared with competitor countries.

Areas for action include: the sustainable use and management of water, air, land, biodiversity, aquaculture and fisheries; reducing waste relating to all these; and adaptation to climate change.

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Goal 8: The food sector is an excellent environmental performer that increases food production sustainably.

Areas for action include:

• packing and processing efficiencies to reduce waste, carbon, water use;

• improving sustainable sourcing;

• producing biofuels;

• strengthening labour skills and resource management for enhanced sustainability.

 

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Desired Outcome and Action Strategies

8.3 Desired OutcomeWater Supply, Soil, and Arable Land Are Sustainable

8.1 Action Strategies• Improve water quality, resource management

practices, consumption, and contamination in agricultural production, food processing and manufacturing.

• Reward producers and processors for improved environmental results and include environmental footprint in criteria for income support programs.

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Specific Actions.

Specific Actions

• Design food packaging to minimize its environmental impact while retaining its ability to protect and prolong product life.

• Improve nutrient, input and water use efficiency.

• Reduce air pollution including GHGs, particulate matter and ammonia.

• Measure carbon footprint using life-cycle analysis.

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• Increasing production to meet international market demand will put stress on water, soli and air.

•Strong efforts to improve efficiency and minimize intensity of impact in urban regions and areas of high production are required to enable economic growth without heightening negative environmental impacts.

Implications for Meat Sector.

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•Success in achieving the CFS’s goals depends on the actions of key food sectors including meat sector, individual companies, governments, communities, households and individuals.

•3rd Food Summit announced the Strategy—now we are communicating and encouraging action.

From Strategy to Action—Next Steps.

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• The Canadian Food Observatory.

• Annual Report Card: Food in Canada-Performance and Potential.

• Research on Emerging Issues.

Next Steps:Encouraging CFS Implementation.Tracking Progress and National Performance.

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•Canadian Food Observatory:– Food sector/system monitoring.– Track progress on CFS implementation.– Promote strategic action, raise

awareness, communicate with media and stakeholders.

– Hold future conferences and convene stakeholder networks.

New CFIC Initiatives.

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• On-line metrics, tracking and tools - create and maintain, updates.

• Annual Report Card

• Track and report on food performance in Canada; highlight emerging challenges

• Report on progress on the Strategy• Future research on emerging and evolving

issues and strategies.

New CFIC Initiatives.

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•Global demand is creating unprecedented opportunity for your sector.

•CFS highlights ways for the food sector to act collaboratively to solve safety perception issues, and access growing markets.

•Canadian branding, with help from government as well as industry wide efforts, will strengthen competitiveness—the world likes Canada!

•We will be monitoring food sector as it surmounts challenges and achieves goals for growth and prosperity.

Lead and Adapt to Change.

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