The rationale for removing Saskatchewan’s single desk marketer for hogs was, in part, to encourage expansion in packing and processing.
However, little has changed since
then-agriculture minister Eric Upshall unilaterally eliminated SPI Marketing Group’s monopoly in the province nearly 10 years ago.
The number of hogs raised in the province has increased, but the slaughter plant situation has become worse.
At the time, Upshall was concerned about two supply agreements SPI had made with the packers then known as Intercontinental Packers in Saskatoon and Tai Wan Packers in Moose Jaw. SPI owned part of both companies, which also had agreements between themselves.
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“We really don’t have a single desk in the real sense of the word any more,” Upshall told The Western Producer then. “You have a single desk with one buyer.”
SPI had a monopoly for hog sales within the province, but producers were free to market outside its borders. Instead of waiting for a vote among producers on the issue, the minister announced in October 1997 that the single desk would end in April 1998.
He said the agreements SPI had made betrayed the purpose of single desk selling, would discourage industry expansion and threaten other processors.
Ten years later, there are no other slaughter plants.
Intercontinental, which opened in 1940, went through several owners and names, most recently Maple Leaf Foods. Its slaughter plant will close June 1.
Tai Wan became Worldwide and then Moose Jaw Packers. It’s been closed since October 2006.
An industry-led movement is afoot to replace the Saskatoon facility and there is still hope Moose Jaw will reopen, but Upshall’s hope for packer expansion is unrealized.
SPI survived and today sells about 60 percent of the province’s slaughter pigs, said general manager Don Hrapchak.
It’s hard to measure exactly what effect the loss of monopoly had, he added. Alberta and Manitoba ended their single desks at the same time.
Richard Wright chaired SPI before the change. He also led the Quadra Group, which managed 16 barns in Saskatchewan and Manitoba until financial difficulties forced them into receivership in 2005. He still keeps an eye on the industry in Saskatchewan and said removing the single desk created a stronger, healthier industry, at least on the production side.
“It gave producers the opportunity to find the best market for their pigs.”
Smaller players weren’t so happy.
“They were clearly frustrated and perceived it as a loss,” said current agriculture minister Mark Wartman.
Some are actually lobbying him to replace it, he added.
However, SaskPork first vice-chair Shirley Voldeng of Fairway Farms in Naicam said the larger producers have become so big that they don’t need anyone to tell them how and where to market their hogs.
“The industry itself has gotten fairly independent.”
Those with fewer animals may have to look at selling to smaller abattoirs or return to the old method of assembly yards to ship full truckloads to packers that want uniform product, she said.
