Earlier this week Montreal based Lucyporc's Yamachiche, Quebec hog slaughter and pork cutting plant was granted approval to export pork products to the European Union.

Canada Pork International assistant executive director Martin Lavoie says, while the approval process had been in place, it became less onerous with the 2005 signing of an equivalency agreement between Canada and the EU which allows the two regions to recognize each others pork processing facilities.

Martin Lavoie-Canada Pork International

Plants that want to export to the EU have to meet Canadian standards plus a series of additional conditions to export to the EU.

Among them the main one is to have no carton in the cutting room.

There is also the use of plastic skids instead of wood skids in the plan, actually in the area where the meat is exposed.

Since Ractopamine has been allowed in Canada, any company that is interested in exporting to the European Union has to get the "Paylean Free" segregation protocol.

I think that, with some potential opening with the WTO negotiations, the future is brighter than it was before.

If you look at our competitors, it's just in the last two years that the US and Chile have made significant use of the TRQ's (Tariff Rate Quotas) available in Europe.

Mr Lavoie notes the EU is a huge high value market.

He says hopefully, in the future, we'll see interest among other Canadian companies in targeting the European Union.