The Canadian Pork Council is denying reports that it is considering
trying to limit hog exports to the United States.
Some American news stories have said that pork producers in the U.S.
and Canada “have agreed to develop a plan to keep a lid on Canadian
live hog exports during the fourth quarter of this year.”
But Martin Rice, the executive director of the Canadian Pork Council,
said his organization hasn’t done that, won’t do that and can’t do that.
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“We don’t have that kind of power.”
The CPC met with the U.S. National Pork Producers Council and the main
Mexican producers’ organization recently. They discussed the
possibility of a fourth-quarter price slump, similar to 1998, but Rice
said the possible solutions to the problem did not include holding back
Canadian pigs.
Instead, the organizations decided to try to tempt packers into
expanding their capacity by adding weekend shifts or extra day shifts,
Rice said.
They will do that only if there is a market for the pork produced, so
the three pork organizations will also try to encourage an increase in
stored meat, such as canning pork.
“They did impress on the Canadians the need for measures to open up
additional capacity,” Rice said.
Many pork market analysts have become worried that any restriction in
slaughter capacity in the fourth quarter, when the number of slaughter
hogs always increases, could cause supplies to outstrip processing
ability, and collapse prices.
Rice said Canadian and American pork organizations will carefully
monitor the packing industry to see whether there are danger signs on
the horizon, such as impending strikes or lockouts at plants.
Rice said American producers focus on Canadian pigs as the source of
their industry’s problems. But he said few realize most of the
“Canadian” pigs they talk about are shipped south only a few days after
they are born and spend most of their lives in American barns. They are
more American than Canadian.
The number of slaughter hogs exported from Canada to the U.S. has
fallen since 1998, said Rice.
