CAMROSE, Alta. – Alberta’s hog marketing agency is taking a closer look at dual marketing in case it is imposed on them by the provincial government, said an agency director.
“The provincial government did it to Manitoba. Is it possible in Alberta? You be the judge of that,” said Paul Allers during an Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation regional meeting.
Allers said while forcing producers to do away with the province’s monopoly hog selling agency isn’t the way to go, agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski may try if a similar initiative now under way in Manitoba proves successful.
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The agency is taking preemptive steps in case Alberta’s agriculture minister decides dual marketing would be good for the hog industry, he said.
The agency has set up a committee made up of three directors and three delegates to examine how dual marketing and single desk selling will look in the future.
“We have to make people aware of what an open market will look like. There hasn’t been an open market in 26 years. It’s unfair to ask them to vote on something when they don’t even know what it looks like,” said Allers.
Last year the agency’s marketing task force looked at the issue and came up with nine recommendations for changing the present marketing system that it said packers and producers want.
One of those recommendations included a type of dual marketing where producers could sell their hogs to packers or other buyers including the marketing agency.
But at a delegate meeting producers wanted concrete answers on how the system would work.
“I’ll be very honest with you. This has to be a producer decision, unlike Manitoba,” said Allers.
“If producers tell us they want a single desk it’ll be very difficult to get away from a single desk.”
