RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has lifted a ban on Canadian beef imposed in 2003 after an outbreak of mad cow disease. The lifting of the ban is initially limited to boneless beef products made from cows less than 30 months of age.
Canada's Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made this announcement here Tuesday night after wrapping up a three-day visit, during which he met Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Zeinal Alireza.
“This agreement reopens the Saudi market to Canadian boneless beef exports,” said Ritz, in a statement released to media after his talks. Ritz said that Canada and Saudi Arabia had also agreed to continue negotiations on resuming full Canadian beef exports to the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia was Canada’s sixth-largest market for beef exports prior to the ban.
Ritz and Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghonaim have “directed officials to resolve market access issues,” said the statement.
The Canadian minister was in Saudi Arabia as part of a Middle East mission to create and expand new marketing opportunities for Canadian producers, said Canadian Embassy spokeswoman Andrea Meyer.
Ritz also held talks with senior officials of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as with some top executives of Saudi and Canadian companies.
The Canada Beef Export Federation welcomed the move and estimated that full market access to Saudi Arabia would allow Canadian beef exporters to re-establish previous export levels worth nearly $6 million annually. The overall size of the Canadian beef industry is some $4 billion a year.
The agreement with Saudi Arabia follows a similar deal on Feb. 3 with the government of Jordan, which until recently had also closed its gates to Canadian beef.
The Canadian minister left Riyadh for Amman to thank Jordanian officials for lifting the ban on Canadian beef. Canada detected its first case of mad cow disease in 2003, prompting the US and other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to shut their markets to Canadian beef costing the Canadian livestock industry billions of dollars.
Canada's efforts since then to control the disease outbreak have earned it the status of a “controlled risk” country by the World Organization for Animal Health.
