Retail pork seems pricey
The next time you are at the grocery store, ask the meat counter manager why the retail price of pork hasn’t dropped much even though hog prices have fallen off the map.
The Western Producer was running stories in July with analysts predicting a strong downturn this fall, but this month’s plummet is earlier and more severe than expected.
The devastating impact on producers had John Germs, chair of SPI Marketing, Saskatchewan’s hog marketing board, saying last week that hog farmers are being “raped” and that it should be illegal to have to sell hogs at such low prices.
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Other industry leaders are more reserved and have supported only the mild request that the Net Income Stabilization Accounts be changed to allow producers to build their accounts more quickly. There isn’t a widespread demand for emergency help.
Different in Europe
Not so in France. Some hog producers there reacted to the hog price fall by attacking a supermarket last week, accusing large retail outlets of taking too large a profit margin and slowing sales of pork.
Other pig producers set fire to bundles of hay in a city centre and let their animals loose in the roads.
Canadian farmers rarely resort to those sorts of dramatics.
But it would seem legitimate to ask retailers why the price of ham and bacon hasn’t declined in step with hog prices that have fallen from about $1.70 a kilogram this time last year to just above $1/kg this year.
When the price of wheat and barley drops, retailers and processors explain the lack of price adjustments by saying grain is only a small component of such products as bread and beer.
But a package of meat is pretty much just that – meat. Sure there is labor (the cost of which is dropping), transportation and packaging, but a package of meat should reflect the price of the raw product more so than a box of cereal.
And lower bacon, ham and pork roast prices that would stimulate consumer demand are needed right now.
We need to eat our way out of the current surplus and retailers need to help out.
Canadian hog industry leaders say they hope to meet with retailers to discuss ways to feature pork and sell more of it.
The same campaign at a grassroots level, consumer to store manager, might help get the message heard.
