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Report on Canadian Beef Supply and Disposition with Beef Quality Categorization
The Canadian beef industry has undergone extensive structural change during the past ten years. There has been a significant westward shift of production, primarily from Ontario and Manitoba to Alberta. Cattle feeding and slaughter activities have concentrated in Alberta with producing units becoming larger in size and fewer in number. International trade has become an increasingly important component of the Canadian market with beef imports almost doubling in the 1988-1994 period while beef exports essentially tripled during the same time span. Live cattle imports and exports more than doubled in the 1988- 1994 period, however cattle imports are small relative to exports.
During the past five years, Canadian imports of high quality beef, mainly from the United States, increased dramatically. This development can be attributed, in large part, to the benefits of trade. The major consumption centres in eastern Canada (Montreal and Toronto), are located closer to U.S. beef production centres than to Alberta, Canada's major producing region. Conversely, Alberta is closer to U.S. west coast and central beef consumption centres than the major U.S. production centres are. Regional differences in tastes and preferences also provide incentives to trade. For example, Select and No-roll product from the United States, which is discounted in the U.S. relative to Choice grade on the basis of lack of fat marbling, has found a market in Canada where it competes in the lean end of the domestic fed beef market.
The development of a more open international trading environment, primarily resulting from the Uruguay Round, CUSTA and NAFTA agreements, has resulted in a more open and competitive North American beef market. Canada's imports of beef from the U.S. have increased in recent years compared to the levels of the late 1980s. Non-NAFTA beef imports, mainly lower quality manufacturing cuts and grinding meat from Oceania, increased sharply in 1993 - 1994 when access to the U.S. market was more restricted but have since declined as North American manufacturing beef production has increased.
The pressures for changes in beef trade policy from different segments of the Canadian beef industry gave rise to the need for a better understanding of the domestic supply and disposition of beef by major quality types. The initial results of the work on this project were reported to the Beef Industry Trade and Development Committee which was responsible for making recommendations to the Minister of Agriculture on Canada's beef trade policy. This current project builds on the initial work that was reported to the committee.
For more information on this publication, please e-mail: Econ_Research@agr.gc.ca.
Report on Canadian Beef Supply and Disposition with Beef Quality Categorization (PDF version, 81 KB) - Help on PDF
Publication: 1941E - ISBN: n/a - Catalogue: n/a - Project: 97014-r