By Hayley Ferguson

Local livestock industry say too early to know impact from meat ban

Jun 26, 2019 | 4:16 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – On Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy announced that they have asked Canada to suspend all meat exports after Chinese customs inspectors noticed residue from a feed additive that is restricted in China in a batch of Canadian pork products.

In Medicine Hat, those in the livestock industry think it’s too early to say what kind of impact the meat ban from China could have here.

“Initially it will be kind of a what if scenario. We won’t understand completely the financial ramifications for awhile.”Said James MacLean, vice-president of Porter & MacLean Livestock Management in Medicine Hat.

MacLean says that while China is a strong trading partner for Canadian agriculture across the board, they are not a huge partner for our beef.

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According to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, shipments of Canadian beef to China represented 2.6 per cent of the country’s total beef exports last year

McLean believes that the pork market will be impacted more.

He does say that the unknown can be stressful for the industry, who have already had a tough year.

“Physiologically this is not good for anybody in agriculture because we’ve already got the issue with that trading partner with canola and then the weather issues, either too much or too little rain,” he said.