FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. – A new hog price insurance program designed to help producers establish a floor price may be too expensive.
Alberta Pork chair Jim Haggins said premiums of $7 to $10 per hog are likely prohibitive for most producers.
“In the examples shown at present, we think the uptake will be limited,” he said.
The Hog Price Insurance Program was designed at the request of Alberta Pork, Western Hog Exchange and processors as a way to protect farmers from the low prices that have knocked hundreds of them out of business.
The program is expected to receive Alberta cabinet approval within the next two months, but producers are already concerned.
“We did not expect the premiums to be quite as high as they appear to be,” Haggins said.
Stuart McKie, a livestock price insurance program field analyst with AFSC, said the program would be paid for solely by producer premiums.
“This is a genuine, self-funding, insurance program,” he said.
Producers pay premiums based on the month their hogs are to be sold, and receive a payout if the price is lower than established.
“It will give you a guaranteed price. It guarantees the lowest price, not the highest price.”
Haggins said producers hoped it would be more like the crop insurance program, with some of the premiums paid by the provincial government.
