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Farm-Scape, Episode 1317

A Vermilion, Alberta based market specialist is confident the partial re-opening of the US border to the movement of Canadian beef will help strengthen the price of all meats.

On Friday the US Agriculture Secretary announced the Department of Agriculture will begin accepting applications for import permits for certain ruminant derived products from Canada.

Neil Blue, with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, says the BSE situation has had a far reaching effect disrupting marketing patterns throughout the North American meat industry.

"In the US situation first of all, in light of their continuing strong beef demand situation, they've been pulling cattle ahead and scrambling to find supplies of market ready cattle.

At the same time, because of competition within our meat industries up here in Canada, we've had more difficulty in having a home for all the animals up here...not only beef but also the hogs.

There's been a lot more slaughter hogs going down to the US, particularly from Manitoba, and that has been suppressing their hog prices somewhat down there.

One of the things that has developed in the US and, in a similar way but not so extreme here in Canada, is a wide spread between the beef and pork prices.

It's been historically wide for this time of year.

That's starting to be relieved somewhat this past week with hog prices moving somewhat higher and cattle prices slipping a little bit down there".

Blue says the partial re-opening of the border will certainly help relieve some of the back-log of beef supply here in Canada which will hopefully be price supportive.

He says it'll be an ongoing issue but the move is a positive step toward a longer term resumption of normal trade between the two countries.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.