After intense criticism and threats by American hog producers, the Canadian border has been opened to some American pig imports.
Even though that means allowing pigs in from a country that has pseudorabies – a disease eradicated in Canada – the Canadian Pork Council agrees with the decision.
“It is in the definite interest of Canadian hog farmer, along with packers and governments, to work with their American counterparts to find solutions,” said CPC president Edouard Asnong.
American hog producers have been accusing Canada of flooding their processors with pigs, driving down the price producers are paid. They have also accused Canadian packers of not doing enough to clear the pig glut.
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The president of the American National Pork Producers Council, Donna Reifschneider, said the Canadian pork industry was threatened with action if it didn’t satisfy demands from the United States to do more.
“Canadian officials were told that the negative consequences of their continued inaction would be difficult to predict or control,” said Reifschneider, when she announced the Canadian border had been cracked.
NPPC official Nick Giordano was more blunt.
“If (American producers) can’t stay in business, you better believe there’s going to be a backlash against Canada.”
The Canadian border has been closed to all American pig imports because many states still report pigs with pseudorabies. Canadian officials agreed in December to allow pigs from states that have eradicated the disease to ship them to packers in Canada. Since 1993 the CPC has supported the principle of allowing disease-free regions to export pigs to Canada.
That includes some northern states, such as Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, but does not include the biggest pig producing states of Iowa and North Carolina.
Some producers are worried by the open border, said Gerry Friesen, the chair of Manitoba Pork.
“Producers don’t want to jeopardize the health status of their herds,” said Friesen.
But packers couldn’t be happier.
“It’s critical that the Canadian pork industry treats the U.S. industry in a fair way,” said Greg Whalley of Fletcher’s Fine Foods.
“What we have to have is free trade in pork.”
Whalley said Fletcher’s Red Deer, Alta., plant is 5,000 pigs per week short of capacity, while Canadian producers are shipping pigs to American plants.
“If these producers stayed home right now, they could … limit some of the criticism that we’re hearing from the U.S. producers.”
Not many expected
Whalley and Don Hrapchak of SPI Marketing Group, said they doubted many American pigs would move north. The states near Alberta and Saskatchewan, the only provinces with significant unused packer capacity, do not produce many pigs.
And Hrapchak noted that the U.S. market is paying more for pigs.
U.S. ire with Canadian live pig imports peaked in early December, after a strike closed a Toronto packing plant. Exports south surged.
But Bob Weaver of the Canadian Meat Council attacked U.S. claims that Canadian packers have not been trying to kill off the hog glut.
He said average weekly slaughter is 50,000 head per week ahead of this time last year, and even the Toronto strike hasn’t stopped packers from killing more than they ever have before.
