Trade mission to China in April will promote Ontario agricultural products
Thursday, February 26, 2015
by SUSAN MANN
China is a growing market for Ontario agricultural products and provincial government officials along with others are headed there next month to help the sector tap into opportunities in the Chinese market.
The mission, on from April 16 to 25, is being led by Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal and Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade Minister Michael Chan. The delegation will visit Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Shouguang and Hong Kong.
“The mission will build on the success of Ontario’s agri-food exporters in China and introduce a new group of companies to this important market,” the government’s Feb. 25 press release says.
Amy Cronin, Ontario Pork chair and co-chair of the Agri-Food Growth Steering Committee, says the mission will be valuable to Ontario’s agri-food industry. “We produce a lot of products and we depend on export markets. If our minister is able to forge relationships with premiers in China and we’re able access more export markets that’s good for agriculture.”
Cronin says agricultural leaders have been invited on the mission with Leal and Chan “but it’s at their own expense.” Ontario Pork has been invited to join the mission but the board hasn’t yet discussed if a representative from the organization will be going.
“We do see a lot of opportunities for the pork industry, especially for the packing sector and that then translates down to our producers,” she says. If the board decides to send someone, it will likely just be one person going. Cronin didn’t know yet how much the trip would cost.
“I think it’s important that we only go if we really believe we can add value to our producers and I do believe that we can,” she says.
China is Ontario’s second largest export market for agri-food products after the United States, the government’s release says. In 2014, Ontario’s total agri-food sales to China, excluding exports to Hong Kong, were $832 million. Current exports include wine, confectionery products, shelf-stable and frozen foods, beverages and snack foods.
Final details on who is going with the ministers haven’t been finalized yet. But “everywhere I go these days there’s a great interest in being part of this mission,” Leal says. “It has created a great excitement and buzz within the agricultural community.”
Leal says they haven’t yet determined the size of the delegation.
Chan was in China last fall with Premier Kathleen Wynne and Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid effectively laying the groundwork for this spring’s visit, Leal says.
When the Ontario delegation was in China last fall “there was great interest in acquiring more Ontario agricultural products because Foodland Ontario has had an international reputation both for quality and safety,” Leal notes. “We believe with the changing tastes in the Chinese consumer market we have great opportunities to grow our industry here in Ontario based on extensive penetration of the Chinese market.”
Chinese consumers recognize the Foodland Ontario brand as standing for “quality and safety and that is certainly driving the Chinese interest in acquiring more of our agricultural products,” he says.
The mission will benefit both farmer and processors. “Farmers in Ontario produce a large number of commodities with quality that’s second to none and those products are then processed into final products,” Leal says. “That’s an important part of the integrated agriculture sector that we have here in Ontario.”
Leal and Chan are going to China now to build on the momentum of last fall’s Chinese mission. As a result of that trip, ministers Duguid and Chan signed about $1 billion worth of deals in China. “We don’t want to see any lag,” Leal says, “and that’s why we’re heading there in April.”
The Chinese trip is also “a unique opportunity to help us reach the premier’s target of 120,000 new jobs in the agri-food sector by 2020,” he notes. BF