WINNIPEG – It’s the 1990s version of the old calling “Go west, young man.”
During the past year, at least two groups of Taiwanese hog farmers and investors have visited the Prairies to see one of the last great frontiers for agricultural production. One of these groups has visited twice.
They’ve got the demand and the money to build new large-scale hog operations for Taiwan consumers. But they don’t have the room.
The island country is about the size of Vancouver Island and mountainous, so not all land can be used. As well, 22 million people living there take up a lot space. While Taiwan already produces as many hogs as Canada, its hog farmers face stricter environmental regulations.
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“Eventually, as Taiwan starts retracting from its production because of environmental problems, it’s going to open up a void that’s going to have to be filled by competitive forces in the world,” said Lasby Lowes, who works in market development for Manitoba Agriculture.
Pork providers
“Those people are fairly shrewd businessmen and maybe they want to be factored as part of the unit that provides pork back into Taiwan.”
Ed Schultz, general manager of Alberta Pork Producers, said Taiwan has close to half the Japanese import market wrapped up. (Canada has six percent.) Canadian pork could eventually be used to fill gaps left by decreasing Taiwanese production.
Sources in all three prairie provinces said discussions have been preliminary. The investors are doing their homework and haven’t revealed exact plans.
But industry representatives are hoping they’ll pick the Prairies. “Everybody these days is looking at hog expansion as being a real option for the Prairies, particularly given what’s happening in the global market,” said Schultz.
“The demand for pork is very encouraging and we’re short of pork specifically to make us world-competitive.”
All three prairie provinces want to dramatically increase production. With higher volumes comes more efficiency and a chance to break into bigger global markets.
“With the small number of hogs that we’ve got (now), it’s kind of like going to the world hauling grain in a half-ton,” said Norm Janssen, a pork agrologist with Saskatchewan Agriculture. “You’ve got to be at a size where you can meet some of the orders that are coming in.”
Because of the great open spaces and abundant supply of feed grains, the western provinces also have low costs of production.
Schultz said according to some estimates, prairie hog farmers can produce two hogs for each one produced in Taiwan, where all feed grain and protein materials are imported.
Land values in Taiwan have skyrocketed since the Second World War and left producers with hefty amounts of capital.
