Globetrotting Ritz

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has completed his third trade mission to China in less than a year. During the mission, China agreed to formally lift the ban on Canadian boneless beef under thirty months of age. Ritz kicked off his mission by serving up the first plates of Canadian beef available in China in almost a decade at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Ritz hosted a second barbecue in Beijing where he presented a plaque to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to commemorate 50 years of agricultural cooperation that started with the first wheat shipments to China. Ritz continues to press the Chinese to remove access restrictions on Canadian canola, but that problem hasn’t been solved yet. Gerry Ritz is seldom visible at major agricultural events within Saskatchewan. You won’t find him at the Farm Progress Show in Regina or Crop Production Week in Saskatoon. Groups that invite him to attend their meetings are often left without any response at all. However, Ritz has done well on the international stage. He’s done a great deal of globetrotting and it has produced tangible results. I’m Kevin Hursh.