March 2, 2004

Canada Pork International To Launch Japan Promotion

Canada Pork International is set to launch two promotional campaigns in Japan following Japanese legislation on the introduction of mandatory country of origin labeling.

The first promotional effort this is currently ongoing is an advertising campaign designed to increase Japanese awareness of Canadian pork. The second is two educational seminars to update Japanese buyers on the latest developments in Canadian pork production, is set for mid-April.

CPI Executive Director Jacques Pomerleau said that the goal is ensure Japanese consumers are able to associate Canada imports with high quality pork.

"We'll be starting a major promotion campaign in newspapers and in the mass transportation system in the Tokyo area.

It is to emphasize the Canadian origin of our product and to make sure consumers are able to establish a link between the high quality of our product and its origin.

It's likely to last until early July and what's driving it is really the fact that there is now a country of origin labelling requirement in Japan.

Now that the Canadian origin must appear on the label, that is the driving force behind our campaign.

Because our pork has not always been promoted or sold as Canadian in the past, people were not aware that we were a major supplier of high quality pork".

The newspaper and mass transit promotions will be supplemented with seminars in Osaka and Tokyo which will target Japan's pork buyers.

Pomerleau says the goal of the seminars will be to make buyers aware of new developments in Canadian Quality Assurance and of new environmental and animal welfare guidelines and regulations.