Canadian beef and pork producers will have some extra time to repay loans they received from the federal government, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced Aug. 6 in Saskatoon.
Beef and pork producers who received cash advances from the government under the Advance Payment Program were due to start repaying loans this October.
Cattle producers will now have until March 31, 2012, to repay loans they received under the APP.
They must begin to make payments on the loans by the end of May 2011. Hog producers must begin to make payments by the end of March 2011, and will have until March 31, 2013 to repay their loans in full.
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“This stay of default will give our producers the breathing room they need to seize market opportunities and get more black ink on their bottom line,” Ritz said.
Bruce Holmquist, who raises cattle near Kinistino, Sask., said that increasing feed grain prices, flooding and closed overseas markets have affected producers’ bottom line.
“It’s welcome news,” Holmquist said. “It’s not by any means the answer, but it is one less bill that has to be paid in the next few months.”
The extension is aimed at producers who took out loans under the APP in 2008 and 2009.
On top of other market downturns felt by almost all livestock producers, hog producers were hit hard by last year’s H1N1 outbreak.
” We hope that this will be that building block that will bring us back to a profitable picture,” said Canada Pork Council president Jurgen Preugschas.”
