Challenging industry | Pork official calls forecast ‘awfully optimistic’
Farm Credit Canada expects Canadian pork production to increase six percent and beef production to grow by nine percent over the next four years.
However, producers and commodity groups say those modest goals are unrealistic unless something is done to remedy the lack of labour in Canada’s red meat industry.
“I wish they were right,” said Alberta Pork chair Frank Novak. “But it seems awfully optimistic.”
In a report on agricultural trade released in the second week of November, FCC economists said Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector is performing well in comparison to other countries. It said trade deals and economic growth in key regions will “help sustain Canada’s leading position in agriculture and agri-food global markets.”
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Trade deals and market opportunities are critical to increase pork and beef exports in the future, but they’re irrelevant if Canada doesn’t have people willing to raise livestock or process meat, said Ron Davidson, director of trade and government relations for the Canadian Meat Council.
“We are now reducing production. We’re reducing exports, we’re moving value added out of the country. It’s serious…. We are in real trouble,” he said.
“We’ve got (meat processing) plants in Ontario with empty positions. There is just nobody doing the work…. Expansion isn’t on the table, anywhere. Trying to maintain our current production is our challenge right now.”
The labour shortage in Canada’s red meat sector is broad, stretching from the farm to feedlots to meat processing plants.
Novak said it’s profitable to raise pigs right now because feed costs are down and prices are up. However, he’s hesitant to expand his operation because hiring and retaining pig barn employees is a massive obstacle.
“We can’t even get people in the (rural) area to do (the work),” he said.
The only solution is to recruit foreign workers, he added.
The federal government introduced changes to the program this spring following highly publicized cases of businesses allegedly abusing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
The government capped the proportion of temporary foreign employees at a workplace, reduced the time these workers can stay in Canada from two years to one and increased the application fee to hire a temporary foreign worker.
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association executive vice-president Dennis Laycraft said Western Canada’s beef and pork slaughter plants have struggled to cope with the changes and are short approximately 600 workers.
He said some Canadian plants are turning away cattle because they don’t have sufficient staff to slaughter and process them. The surplus cattle are diverted to American plants.
“If they’re operating at 3,500 (head) a day, instead of say 4,200 a day, that’s the type of thing we’re talking about,” Laycraft said.
Those figures are rough estimates, he added.
Bryan Walton, general manager of the National Cattle Feeders’ Association, said slaughter plant reductions have an immediate effect on feedlots.
“If the packing plants can’t meet their full kill capacity, then they back things up to us. How is that making us a more efficient country?”
Walton said the cap on the number of temporary foreign workers and the fee increase don’t apply to feedlots, but they will be affected by the change in how long these employees can work in Canada.
robert.arnason@producer.com
