WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Canada's dependence on cattle and beef sales to the United States leaves it at risk of becoming a net importer of beef from the U.S. as it buys back higher-value processed products, a report on the C$6-billion ($6.1 billion) industry said on Monday.
Canada, the No. 5 beef exporter, ships 85 percent of its beef and cattle exports to the United States, racking up C$1.8 billion in 2011 sales. Much of those supplies, however, are backfilling the U.S. market, allowing the American beef industry to process more meat to take advantage of higher value and margins, said the report by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
"Today the mindset seems to be to produce cattle and beef for the United States," said David McInnes, chief executive of the policy organization, from Ottawa. "And they're getting the value off it."
Canada shipped C$1.4 billion worth more beef to the United States than it imported in 2002. But by 2011, that net trade surplus fell to just C$42 million, as Canada sends to the United States live cattle and beef, then imports back higher-value processed products.
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