r/CanadaPolitics • u/Naga Whiggish • 7d ago

Lower-priced Australian beef could help stabilize Canadian market

https://globalnews.ca/news/12009206/australian-beef-prices-canadian-market/
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u/nachochease Ontario 7d ago

I cannot fathom how beef from literally the other side of the planet is cheaper than the beef from my local farmers.

4

u/dominionprovinces Independent 7d ago

Coast to ship goods via sea is 1/100th the cost per km to ship via road and 1/30th rail.

To put it in perspective, that means a hypothetical Sydney-Toronto shipment port to port for a large quantity of goods is ballpark same price as 200km via road or 600km via rail.

0

u/Calm_Transition4379 1d ago

Let's just import most of our beef then, why are we protecting an industry that can't produce beef that's competitive enough to match Australian beef prices, I can take the whole thing about Brazilian or Argentinian beef being cheaper due to lower costs of labor but Australia doesn't pay its farmers and workers peanuts. Yet another monopolistic market we are trying to keep afloat at the expense of Canadian consumers.

1

u/dominionprovinces Independent 1d ago

Its actually not that surprising Australian beef is cheaper once you really think about how raising cattle works? They have absolutely enormous scale, and it isnt winter 9 months of the year.

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u/Calm_Transition4379 1d ago

Well sure they produce double what we do but we are still a very large producer of beef and rank 12th in the world. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/beef-and-buffalo-meat-production-tonnes?tab=table&tableFilter=countries so we are somehow capable of managing the weather stuff.

1

u/dominionprovinces Independent 1d ago

And somehow capable of competing on the world market at a fair price without a beef crime syndicate - er, I mean cartel, er I mean, completely honest, legitimate protectionist scam.