SELKIRK, Man. – Hog farmers don’t give a pig’s ear for the way the Manitoba government decided to change their marketing system.
About 300 people crowded into a hall here about 30 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg last week to give Harry Enns an earful of criticism, jeers and sharply pointed questions about his actions as provincial agriculture minister.
Enns maintained he consulted with producers before deciding Manitoba Pork would no longer have a monopoly on selling farmers’ hogs. But the farmers strongly disagreed.
“Whether the single desk remains I don’t feel is the big question,” said Marg Rempel, who farms near Ste. Anne. “I feel a lot of producers want the right to determine what will happen to their industry.”
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Implies ignorance
Dan Kleinsasser said the unilateral decision implies “we, the producers really don’t know what is good for our future, that we are too short-sighted and ignorant to know what is good for our industry in the long run.”
The vice-president of a major feed supplier told Enns he’s thrown a lot of “chaos” into the industry.
“It’s not only created a lot of confusion, but a lot of depression amongst hog producers,” said Ron Friesen of Eastman Feeds.
John Pruen of Selkirk agreed. “I’m a young farmer, I’m heavily in debt, and what I need is stability,” he told Enns.
“I look to Manitoba Pork as doing a good job of stabilizing the industry, especially the last year with (the forward contracting program).”
Enns said Manitoba Pork will continue to be the best marketing choice for many farmers.
Stay with what’s best
“Make it the best marketing agency in the province of Manitoba,” he said. “Nothing that Harry Enns or my government is proposing to do is preventing you from doing that.”
Enns explained he wants pork production to increase so grain growers have a local market for feed grain.
But more pork will have to be exported. “The market is not trying to sell pork to Safeway or to Arborg or Solo, the market is Japan,” he said.
The current industry players weren’t making big enough gains into export markets, Enns said. And if Manitoba wants to “play with the big boys,” the government has to make sure there’s the right climate for processors to move into the province.
Rempel asked Enns why he believes value-added industry will move into Manitoba. She thinks more hogs could be shipped to the U.S. for processing.
“We have the best quality pork on this continent and everybody knows it. And the American packers are just waiting to get their hands on it,” she said.
Enns said he can’t guarantee packers will move here. But he said he believes they will, based on meetings he’s had with companies like IBP and Nippon Ham.
The 26-year veteran of the legislature told farmers to trust him. “I haven’t (survived politics) by being politically naive or by being stupid,” he said, adding his decision “is in the interests of all of you.”
Afterwards, Enns said the meeting hadn’t changed his mind.
