WINNIPEG (Reuters) – After poor returns and record exports to the United States, Canadian farmers reduced their hog inventories marginally in the first quarter of 2004, Statistics Canada said.
Total inventories on April 1 were 14.6 million hogs, Statistics Canada said, down 0.4 percent from Jan. 1 and down 0.1 percent from the same time last year.
The biggest declines occurred in Ontario and Quebec.
But in the West, hog numbers were up by 1.5 percent. Saskatchewan increased by 5.5 percent over the year before, Manitoba increased by 3.3 percent, Alberta was down by 3.3 percent and British Columbia rose 6.5 percent.
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Farmers have struggled with losses on their hogs as a result of poor prices in 2002 and 2003. From June to December 2003, prices plunged by more than 25 percent.
The decline was caused by a surplus of beef in Canada after the first homegrown case of BSE last May saw key export markets ban Canadian beef and cattle.
In response, farmers exported record numbers of hogs to the U.S. Shipments surged 48 percent or 1.6 million head after the BSE case, compared with the same seven months of 2002.
Exports of live hogs totalled 7.4 million in 2003, most of which were weanlings destined for feeder barns, the federal agency said.
In March, the U.S. started an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation into Canadian hog shipments.
