Canadian hog numbers continue to fall with no herd rebuilding in sight as fewer sows farrow during the first half of this year.
The Statistics Canada Jan. 1 livestock census reported hog numbers are at their lowest levels in 12 years as producers respond to poor markets by downsizing their herds.
Canadian hog producers had an estimated 11.6 million hogs on their farms, down 4.5 percent from January 2009, with an almost equal decrease in the size of the breeding herd. The inventory of sows is estimated at 1.3 million head.
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Slaughter levels in Canada have increased since 2007, but are below the peak of 22.9 million head in 2004. In 2009, slaughter reached 21.8 million head.
“We were hoping the numbers would go down for better pricing from a pig production standpoint,” said Ray Price, who manages the pork division of Sunterra Farms at Acme, Alta.
The family-owned operation, which includes two packing plants, ships about 80 percent of its 300,000 head production to Japan.
Canada is a major pork exporter but could do better and pay producers better, he said.
“We have been abysmal at getting access to markets.”
Price blames the lack of progress on failed world trade organization talks. Low cost exporters, such as Denmark, would not be as competitive in Asian markets because world trade rules would remove producer subsidies, he argued.
“We could double our exports to Japan. That would add money to the table for pig producers in Canada,” he said.
The industry must decide whether it wants to be a major world player or limit itself to the Canadian market, he added. Money from export sales can keep producers operating, but if the focus shifts to domestic only sales, then some pork producers will have to quit the business, he said.
During 2009, total live hog exports amounted to 6.4 million head, down almost 32 percent from 2008. This was well below the peak of 10 million head in 2007 where most were shipped to the United States. Canada produced about 2.1 million tonnes of pork and exported about 1.1 million tonnes.
Statistics Canada analysis attributed the decline to structural changes in the Canadian hog industry. Due to low prices for several years, the federal government offered a restructuring program for hog producers. It includes creation of a loan loss reserve fund for hog producers, a marketing fund and a transition program to help producers leave the industry.
Other barriers to progress included implementation of the United States country-of-origin labelling regulations where fewer packers wanted foreign born animals. Border closures due to concerns surrounding the H1N1 influenza also affected exports of pork and live hogs in 2009.
