Canada's beef industry is working on an ambitious mad-cow recovery plan that would ramp up exports sharply over the next decade while reducing reliance on the U.S. market.

Ted Haney of the Canada Beef Export Federation says his members want exports of processed beef increased to 800,000 tonnes by 2015.

"Our industry in the past expected they would export some 600,000 tonnes to all world markets by 2010," Haney says.

"They're telling us now that by 2010, based on increased (slaughter) capacity in Canada, they expect to export 700,000 tonnes," he says. "By 2015, they expect exports to reach 800,000 tonnes with 52 per cent of that total going to the United States."

The key is reducing trade dependency on the U.S. from what's currently about 90 per cent down to 50 per cent in a defined period, says Haney.

Drafting long-range plans is much easier for the beleaguered industry than coping with the continued uncertainly that hangs over relations with its largest trading partner, the U.S.

A group of protectionist ranchers is trying to get a U.S. appeals court to again close the border to young Canadian cattle. Although there are no guarantees the case will be heard, producers continue to be skittish after losing more than $7 billion in exports since the brain-wasting disease was first found in an Alberta cow in May 2003.

"If you ask them for the next three months, six months or even a year, the answers are mystified and frustrated," says Haney. "There's so many dynamics at play that it's very difficult to have clear direction in the short term. But by 2007, there's a consensus that sales will be well above pre-BSE levels."

Since mid-July, almost 100,000 cattle under 30 months have been shipped to the U.S. But future prosperity lies in a more global marketplace. The industry now champions a cut-in-Canada future, where the only meat that leaves this country's borders has already been processed.

"These export goals include no live cattle," says Haney, who has spent much of the last two years travelling through Asia, Mexico and Europe working to re-establish trade after international borders slammed shut.

Also last week, federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell created a new group to advise him on how to expand Canada's trade in beef and cattle.