With beef headed south, Alberta Beef Producers refocus to other projects
Posted Dec 9, 2012 3:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Now that XL Foods can get back to shipping meat to the United States, the chair of the Alberta Beef Producers is looking forward.
There have been ongoing negotiations to get deals done with European and Japanese markets.
Doug Sawyer said although they never lost momentum in working to get deals done, it’s a relief.
“Everytime we get over a hurdle, like getting the U.S. open and stuff, that’s one less thing on our plate that we have to deal with,” he said.
Sawyer adds the negotiations with the Europeans and Japanese weren’t affected at all by the recall, because they’re more about figuring out technical issues.
“Our issues there have nothing to do with the recall, they’ve been ongoing negotiations that have been happening for frankly years,” he said. “But we’re getting close to having them put together I hope, which is very, very positive.”
Sawyer suspects deals could get done within months.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently relisted the XL Foods plant, so it could ship products to the States.
