00:00:26.200I know there is a growing number of Canadians concerned about supply management, which is kind of nice, actually, because 25 years ago, I felt like I was alone.
00:00:36.320I mean, I was the only one talking about supply management, and everyone was looking at me and saying, what's your problem?
00:02:40.560But, you know, they've always been isolated, I guess, you know, free market people speaking up, but not really grabbing the attention of people.
00:02:49.060But something that's really bringing it to the fore right now, aside from the high cost of living, is it's really causing some trade hindrances with us.
00:02:55.500I mean, we've got a trade war with the United States and we've had issues with Europe.
00:02:59.040Supply management's coming up almost all the time now.
00:03:02.320Absolutely. So on August 19th, we know that there are new tariffs coming in at 50%. I would say in Niagara food space, two major sectors are being impacted. One is dairy and the other is liquor. And of course, President Trump is absolutely strategic in terms of aiming at specific sectors, dairy, because of, well, tariffs, tariffs on imports.
00:03:26.440And a lot of people often point to dairy retail prices saying that our dairy products are actually way more expensive than the U.S.
00:03:43.920But when you look at retail prices, yes, many products are more expensive than the U.S., specifically cheese and yogurt and things like that.
00:03:53.160But I don't think that's actually the right reason to think about changing supply management.
00:03:58.880I think the big thing we have is the fact that we have no innovation and we're allowing foreign companies, foreign countries to come in and build and buy processors, which to me are the key chain, the key asset we need to focus on when it comes to growing the dairy sector.
00:04:20.820China built a dairy facility in Kingston. The Americans' Coca-Cola actually built a facility
00:04:27.300in Peterborough for lactose-free milk. Lactalis just bought the cheese division of Agropur.
00:04:34.740That's a multinational coming from Europe. So more and more, we're losing control of our own
00:04:41.220dairy sector despite supply management, and that's a big problem.
00:04:45.940Yeah, well, one of the things that supply management was supposedly sold on
00:04:49.840was it was going to protect the family farm.
00:04:52.280And the statistics don't support that whatsoever.
00:04:55.040I mean, when they brought it in, there was, what,
00:04:56.720a hundred and some thousand family farms or more, I believe.
00:04:59.740And now it's, what, 10,000 or 11,000 farms that are predominant in the industry
00:05:04.160because it forces more of a centralized, larger model
00:05:10.980So, again, when supply management was created, it was to protect the family farm and also regionalize production.
00:05:21.760That's the important part, especially for you guys in Alberta and for us in the Atlantic.
00:05:27.200We're supposed to produce what we need by province because quotas are managed by provinces.
00:05:31.920But the reality now is that Quebec, for example, produces 36%, 37% of all the milk and butterfat we need in Canada with only 20% of the population, which is why this thing is so political because, well, politicians are after votes.
00:05:51.160And so that's why when you go back to the architects of supply management, they probably didn't see this coming at all.
00:05:58.540And now the thing is so politicized, it's impossible to get anybody to think strategically about supply management and how to actually make it better, more competitive.
00:06:10.180so a tenant in the White House stops harassing and threaten Canada
00:06:16.660and focusing on that one weak point we have, which is supply management,
00:11:46.800I mean, if you put consumers off of a regular brand, I mean, it's a lot of work to bring people on to something.
00:11:51.380If families get used to a regular diet of pork and poultry, even if the beef prices recover, it may be more difficult to pull them in.
00:11:59.040some people don't necessarily understand somebody was asking you know how you could project a couple
00:12:02.740of years ahead one of the commenters you know on where things might go but beef is a little
00:12:07.240different it's such a longer turnover for a producer to bring something you know to make
00:12:12.320your herd larger to bring your production up when the herds have been depleted it's a multi-year
00:12:17.700process to bring them up i mean poultry and pork you can well actually 2014 it didn't take that
00:12:22.920long i mean it was the same thing it just producers decided to reinvest in their herds
00:12:28.700it's not happening this time around. Due to credit, people are leaving, they're exiting
00:12:33.100the industry. It's been very different, both in Canada and the US. It's been really bizarre.
00:12:37.900And a lot of analysts have been surprised, including myself. But I do think that we're
00:12:43.660going to get back to some normalcy eventually in 2027. And to be honest, Corey, we have 40 years
00:12:51.740worth of data, farm gate data and retail data. So correlating both for us, it's quite easy.
00:12:58.460So we can predict in advance exactly what may happen with beef prices.
00:13:03.120Yeah, well, I mean, I certainly hope they do stabilize for the sake of the producers and for us as consumers.
00:13:08.600I mean, I work in independent media, which means if I have beef, I got to buy those cheap, tough steaks and beat the heck out of them and tenderize them because I don't have the budget for a good Alberta ribeye right now.
00:13:52.660When it comes to Australian beef, New Zealand beef,
00:13:55.880Um, sometimes it's mentioned and sometimes I actually, I see promotions right now for Australian beef, uh, on, on, on flyers in Canada.
00:14:05.320So, so it is advertised as Australian beef, but once you go into the grocery store, my, if you see good prices, chances are it's from Australia, from New Zealand.
00:14:15.240So, but you, you're often forced to ask the butcher or the person right there.
00:14:21.400I mean, we've got the, you know, the resources, the land, the skilled producers across the country.
00:14:28.440So hopefully they can get back into it.
00:14:30.780I think we kind of run out of time, but I know there's been issues on the processing end of things too.
00:14:35.140I mean, beef producers have long said, even when they've had larger herds, they say, well, we're not eating a bunch of profit, but the prices are going up at the table and we're trying to figure out where it is.