WINNIPEG – Manitoba Pork has launched a contract it hopes will keep producers coming back even when the agency loses its monopoly on hog marketing July 1.
The agency wrapped its marketing services into a program called Opportunityplus, which includes the popular forward contracting program.
“It’s nothing that changes the former method of selling, it’s just more options or opportunities,” said Gerry Friesen, chair of Manitoba Pork.
Producers can choose a six- or 12-month rollover contract that requires them to give a full term’s notice to end the contract. They can choose features such as new forward contract pricing options, at any time.
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Manitoba Pork has also increased its cash advances to $80 per hog from $50.
Even better offer
“There’s been a number of producers that have taken advantage of the $50 one and I’m sure they’re going to be more pleased with the $80 one,” Friesen said.
The contract is due by June 15 so the agency can be prepared for the July 1 change, but Friesen said producers can sign up any time.
“A lot of producers will figure they can market their own pigs and they’re going to avoid signing the contract, and the way I see it, there’s going to be absolute chaos come July 1,” he said.
Chose route to take
“But I think that will settle down fairly quickly, and producers will decide which route to go.”
Friesen said the agency has hired two people to travel the province promoting and explaining the contract to producers.
Other problems have not yet been solved, Friesen said, including a price transparency mechanism, and assembly and transportation issues. Manitoba Pork does not yet know who will be competing with it for producers’ hogs.
“I have heard more rumors than I care to hear,” he wryly noted.
Elite Swine and Puratone, companies that provide feed, advice and other services to large groups of producers, will likely market hogs too, Friesen said, but he hasn’t heard anything official about other marketing contracts.
