Alberta Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson says there are both challenges and opportunities facing the province's agriculture industry in 2014.
In his year-end media teleconference, Olson said the province had one of the best years ever in terms of crop production in 2013, and he plans to work with the agriculture industry in hopes of seeing similar results in 2014.
Finding new markets for Alberta agricultural products continues to be in everyone's best interest, with the province producing more than $12 billion in total farm cash receipts in 2013, he said.
“We're obviously producing an awful lot of stuff and we need to find new markets for our commodities and we need to preserve the markets that we have,” said Olson. “One of the things that we are intent on doing in 2014 is ensuring that we have many markets for all of our resources.
“There are seven billion people to feed in the world right now and all of the projections are that that number will grow to nine billion by 2050, so it's very important for us to develop these new markets.”
Further opening up the European Union market to Alberta agriculture producers will be one of the areas of focus going forward, he said.
“This is one of the fronts we have been working on,” he said. “These types of market development activities are really essential for us.”
The Open Farm Days project, where producers opened their facilities for tours by urban and rural visitors in 2013, was a success and will continue in 2014, he said.
“It was a great start and we are looking for an even bigger and more successful Open Farm Days next year,” he said. “That is a value-added type of initiative that we consider to be very successful.”
The government is committed to supporting research and innovation as a key to ongoing Alberta agriculture industry success, he said.
“Agriculture these days is a highly complex, very science-based industry and that means research and innovation is incredibly important,” he said. “If we want to develop new markets and if we want to be on the cutting edge, we have to put resources into research and innovation.
“We can't afford to stand still because it is a highly competitive international market.”
One of the “biggest challenges” facing the Alberta agriculture industry continues to be the COOL (country of origin labeling) U.S. legislated rule that requires the segregation of beef and pork that is not born, raised and slaughtered in the United States, he said. “It has been a long-standing thorn in the side of our beef and pork industries,” he said. “We have been working with our federal and provincial counterparts in making the case that this rule needs to be changed by the Americans. It doesn't make any sense and it is costing our industries over a billion dollars a year.
“It is hurting industry on both sides of the border. The costs are going to trickle down to consumers. We are making progress but so far we don't have a resolution. We want to remain hopeful but we are not there yet.”
Finding enough workers for the Alberta agriculture industry remains a challenge, he said.
“The issue of temporary foreign workers is something we are in constant contact with the federal government on because a lot of this issue is the responsibility of the federal government,” he said.
“We need them to work with us to make it easier to get foreign workers into the country. This is something we need, is a challenge and we are doing our best to motivate the federal government to relax their rules. That is a work in progress.”
Getting Alberta agriculture products to markets in the face of grain railcar shortages and other related problems is another challenge, he said.
“In terms of moving all of this (agriculture products), I am hearing the concerns in terms of railcars,” he said. “I have spoken to some railway representatives who have pointed out to me that even if you added a whole bunch of railcars, they've got to have somewhere to go. It's not just about railcars, it's about terminals, and it's about shipping. It's a complex integrated system. We are aware of the issue.”
The government will be doing more to promote Alberta agriculture products, both in and outside the province in 2014, he said. “Agriculture is our biggest renewable resource industry, and as I like to say, eating isn't going out of style,” he said.
