Colombia opens small ruminant export opportunities

Canadian sheep and goat farmers have more access to export markets due to recent approval to ship frozen semen to Colombia without the need for scrapie risk certification.

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That’s in addition to the agreement two years ago that allows embryos and live small ruminant access to Colombia. Live animals and embryos have to come from farms certified by the Scrapie Flock Certification Program.

Why it matters: There are potential export options for Canadian livestock around the world, but infrastructure is necessary to support those exports.

The approval has been a long time coming for Juan Higuera, who runs Cannexion, an Ottawa company that facilitates international trade and projects between Canada and Latin America.

He’s been working for 12 years to get approval to export Canadian small ruminant genetics to Colombia, where he says farmers are eager to receive them.

Canada has had a free trade agreement with Colombia since 2011.

The first win for Higuera was a certificate received two years ago that allowed Canada to export live sheep and ruminants to Colombia. That approval only allowed the export of sheep and goats from farms on the Scrapie Flock Certification Program.

Since the American border opened to sheep that didn’t need to be certified on the program, the number of flocks that have maintained certification has dwindled to just five in Canada.

That has limited the opportunity to export live animals.

Scrapie is a degenerative disease of sheep and goats that affects the central nervous system and results in death. It is one of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases.

However, frozen semen can come from farms that are not on the scrapie program, and that potential excites Higuera.

He says Colombia is a leader among Andean countries (including Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador) in phytosanitary approvals and neighbouring countries often follow the Colombian lead. Huigera worked for years to lay the groundwork of relations between Colombia and Canada on small ruminant expertise.

The Ovino Caprino Project brought Canadian production and veterinary expertise to Colombia.

The new ambassador to Colombia will visit Century Lane Sheep Farm, just outside Ottawa, in mid-October to celebrate the new agreement for frozen semen export.

The marathon to open an international trade door for livestock is long, and even when there’s phytosanitary approval, an industry has to be ready to respond.

So, even after 12 years of working to open the Colombian market to Canadian small ruminant genetics, the infrastructure in Canada to make it happen is thin.

In this case, few people in the country have experience and facilities with which to collect sheep and goat semen.

Century Lane Sheep Farm, at Ashton, is one of five sheep farms in Canada to have maintained its negligible risk status under the scrapie program. The 35-ewe flock is the only scrapie negligible risk-certified, polled Dorset flock in North America.

Shirley Graves, who runs the farm with her husband Rob, says that during her dairy farm upbringing, “we always had instilled upon us by my parents that your herd health had to be paramount.”

As a result, a high health protocol for sheep, including scrapie risk management, made sense. She hopes to be able to export sheep and frozen semen to Colombia.

“We are just in the beginning stages of finding out where and how that happens.”

Exporting semen is simpler than moving live animals, but Higuera says a lack of qualified veterinarians hinders exports. There are few places that collect sheep and goat semen in the country.

Graves says they have never collected and frozen semen from their rams, but she says it’s not new technology. A Quebec organization harvests semen, stores it and sells it back to producers as needed.

Some of Graves’ rams were part of that program.

The Graves see potential in the Andean area as an export destination for their Dorsets. They now have a Spanish version of their website and Rob is learning the language to be ready for a trip to Colombia.

“We have name recognition right across Canada,” says Graves. “We have invested the time and effort to produce what we think is a quality product. To get it recognized by having some exports through Juan would be a proud moment.”

Higuera says someday, with a free trade agreement between Colombia and Canada, lamb meat could flow back to Canada and help diversify the dependence Canada has on lamb imports from New Zealand and Australia.