China could provide significant market opportunity for Canadian pork sector
Staff Writer
Farms.com
China offers great potential for the Canadian pork sector in terms of its market opportunity, Neil Ketlison, the chair of Canada Pork International, said in a Farmscape
article Friday.
Lawrence MacAulay, federal minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, along with representatives of Canada’s agri-food sector, completed a 10-day trade mission to China last week.
China’s population, which exceeds one billion people, is the reasoning for Canada’s involvement in their markets, Ketlison said of his visit to Shanghai during the trade mission, the article said.
“Japan is our largest market,” said Ketlison in the article. “We sell over a billion dollars of pork there every year. It is a mature market, it is a lucrative market and quite frankly it's a market we want to maintain and grow.”
China’s markets consist of mainly frozen products, with Canada exporting over 500 million dollars of frozen product to the country in different forms, Ketlison noted.
“There is a growing middle class there that are quite interested in Canadian pork and they're quite interested in safe quality food and the kinds of products we can contribute to them,” he added.
Roughly 26 million people reside in Shanghai alone, which is 80 per cent of the population of Canada, gathered in a small area, Ketlison explained.
Based on his interactions with buyers, there is a tremendous increase in the demand for Canadian pork, and Ketlison believes that Canada can supply that demand.
Farms.com has reached out to the Canadian Pork Council for comment.
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