LACOMBE, Alta. – When people throughout the world have a choice of meat, nearly half of them choose to put pork on their forks.
Consultant Don Hoover, of Serecon Management, told about 100 farmers, bankers and agricultural extension staff in this central Alberta town that the world is ready for even more pork and a lot of it should come from Alberta farms.
Of all the meat eaten in the world, 44 percent is pork. That equals 77 million tonnes of pork produced globally each year.
As for the competition, world beef annual consumption is 28 percent of the total, or 47 million tonnes, and poultry is 21 percent at 44 million tonnes.
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A series of seminars held throughout the province in November and December, sponsored by Alberta Agriculture, processing companies and the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, told producers expansion is feasible because of growing world demand.
“The market will be picked up by somebody. The question is who,” said Hoover.
Since 1984, worldwide pork consumption has risen three percent a year, with the largest growth in Asia.
More customers
Much of the increase for nations like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea is caused by growing populations rather than increased individual consumption.
Each Japanese person, for example, eats 17 kilograms of pork a year. By comparison, a Canadian consumes 33 kg a year.
The Japanese rely heavily on Taiwan to supplement their domestic pork industry.
However, environmental pressures from too much manure and a shrinking amount of farmland are expected to force Taiwan to reduce its production of 12 to 13 million head a year to about eight million annually.
The five million hog shortfall will have to come from somewhere else.
“We feel pig producers in Alberta have that ability,” he said.
Canada is already a significant player in the world pork trade, said Hoover.
It is the second largest exporter of pork in the world with 63 percent of exports going to the United States and 23 percent sold to Japan. Smaller orders end up in South Korea, Russia and Hong Kong.
Canada had sales of $740 million in fresh chilled pork last year. Sales of frozen cuts reached $169 million, processed products earned $40 million and offal sales were $19 million.
For Alberta, total farmgate receipts for pork in 1995 were $393 million.
Last year Alberta marketed 2.4 million head. By comparison, Quebec sold five million, Ontario four million, Manitoba 2.1 million and Saskatchewan one million hogs.
