Canadian beef is finally making its way to Australia for the first time in over 20 years.
Following a risk assessment, Australia has removed its BSE restrictions on beef from Canada.
Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Cattle Association Dennis Laycraft says it's a long time coming.
"That sends a message, in our mind, to a few other Asian countries that still have some BSE restrictions in place. It would be nice to finally completely close that book off and move forward and with Australia being typically one of the leaders in that area, we hope it sends that positive message." Laycraft said.
While Australia will be another market for Canadian producers to sell product, Laycraft considers the country "almost a boutique market", meaning some would add Canadian beef for the sake of variety and the fact that Australia is a major beef producer and exporter.
That said, there is value still in having access to that market.
"The type of customers that would be looking for our beef would be looking for the high-end, restaurant-type products or special occasion products." he said.
He gave credit to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for their advocacy work.
"It's always the regulator and the regulator that have to work together. We did take a number of the investigative team from Australia on some tours to show them the industry and look at that and that was a number of years ago, but that contributed to their ultimate decision that we fully meet the animal health requirements that they're looking for."
Australia was one of the last countries with restrictions on Canadian beef; China and South Korea still have restrictions in place but for different reasons, according to Laycraft.
He explained South Korea demands high-quality, grain-fed beef and has restrictions on 30-month-old beef; despite that, Canada still exports beef to South Korea.
China, meanwhile, has been a "difficult market" for Canada, said Laycraft, adding they too have a restriction of 30-month-old beef but it goes beyond that.
"Ever since the arrest of the (chief) financial officer with Huawei, it's been a very, very strained relationship. And we've really been locked out completely since December 2021, which was linked to a case of atypical BSE, which in today's rules, that's no excuse. Once you've determined it's atypical BSE, all you should be lifting immediately any market restrictions. And, in fact, they didn't even close to a number of other countries that found atypical BSE cases."
