| |  Economics and Competitiveness
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Table of Contents | Executive Summary/Full Report
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 The beef industry is at a crossroads. Consumers are demanding an increasing variety of safe, nutritious, convenient and consistent foods. The public is demanding, in a somewhat nebulous fashion, that agricultural producers be responsible stewards of the resources in their control. Beef production margins are generally declining. In order to maintain its competitive position in global beef markets, the Alberta industry will have to keep pace with the economic evolution occurring world wide.
The intent of this project is to add to the knowledge set of beef industry participants by providing information on Alberta's current industry status relative to other global beef industry participants. This information and analysis will complement the knowledge of individual producers and provide strategic insight for consideration in their short and long term planning and decision making.
Project objectives revolve around providing information and analysis regarding industry structure, economic and financial performance, resource use, production, consumption, trade, market fundamentals, and key industry issues, all funneling to an assessment of Alberta's competitive position relative to a group of significant global beef producing regions. Countries selected as comparators include Canada (with specific reference to Alberta and Western Canada), the United States (with attention given to specific state groupings), Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Australia. These countries are referred to as the "Focus-6" (Foreign Other, Canada and the United States).
Note to the Reader: this document provided an assessment of the competitive position of the Alberta beef industry at the beginning of the century. Since that time, the beef sector has faced the significant challenges of both drought and a BSE event. These circumstances have presented some challenges to the industry, hastening structural changes that many industry experts submit would have occurred anyhow …just over an extended period of time. The findings of the assessment by-and-large hold true for both today's industry and the outlook for the future.
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