Small pig producers in Iowa have started hammering back at the mega-pig producers who are trying to keep Canadian weanling pigs out of the U.S. market.
But it won’t be an easy battle, says an Iowa veterinarian who represents about 250 pig feeder barn operators.
“We’re really fighting an uphill battle against the big guys,” said Tom Samp, whose company, Unique Swine Systems, is a big purchaser of Canadian weanlings. His company co-ordinates the production of independent producers, including bringing down weanlings from Manitoba.
Most American importers of Canadian weanlings now have to pay a 14 percent duty because of an antidumping investigation by the U.S. government.
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That’s hard to swallow, said Samp in an interview, because Iowa pig feeders already feel they’re paying a lot for Canadian pigs.
“We’re really getting whammied,” said Samp, whose producers buy Canadian pigs on a contract set by U.S. market prices. The Canadian pigs are bought for a premium, and now the Iowa producers have to pay a duty as well.
“They’re willing to absorb the price right now (because slaughter hog prices are high),” said Samp. “But when prices drop, it’ll be different if things don’t change.”
The U.S. Commerce Department’s investigation of the Canadian hog industry followed the urging of the U.S. National Pig Producers Council, which claimed Canadian pig farmers get significant subsidies from the Canadian government and that the imports are being dumped into the U.S. market, hurting U.S. prices.
The commerce department determined that Canadian subsidies were not against trading laws, but the antidumping investigation found that Canadian pigs may be hurting U.S. producers and a perliminary duty of 14 percent was imposed.
A final ruling on the antidumping investigation will not be made until March 2005 or later.
Samp said the U.S. pig council’s complaints are driven by its largest members’ private interests, not by legitimate concerns. He alleged big packing companies like Smithfield Foods want to control the weanling market and to force independent producers to join their network. If these companies can keep Canadian pigs out of the market, they can take over more of the market and raise prices, Samp said.
The U.S. council is going along with it because corporations are its big funders.
The council has been stung by the criticism of Samp and fellow hog industry players who have formed the Pork Trade Action Coalition. In a Nov. 19 speech, former pork council president Jon Caspers told American radio farm broadcasters that the coalition is wrong about small producers not supporting the council’s position. He said 23 state hog producer organizations supported the council’s actions and that “propaganda that suggests otherwise is patently false.”
Recently the council suggested the antidumping investigation could be ended if bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and Canadian governments caused Canada to drop what the council sees as subsidies.
“If the Canadian government would agree to this, the antidumping and countervailing duty case would be unnecessary,” said Caspers.
Samp said independent Iowa pig producers are getting caught in the crossfire between giant U.S. corporate hog producers and the Quebec and Ontario hog boards, which he said appear to be dumping hogs in the U.S. market.
Manitoba hogs are the only way, so far, that independent Iowa producers have been able to get back into the game.
“They’re really important for us because we’re trying to keep the independent producer in business,” said Samp.
“Otherwise, we have to go to the corporate guys to get hogs.”
