World’s third largest exporter | Four year, $17 million International Pork Marketing Fund designed to find new markets is set to expire next year
The Canadian pork industry describes itself as one of Canada’s most prominent export successes, becoming the world’s third largest exporter with record sales of $3.2 billion last year.
However, it says it still needs government financial help to expand those export numbers.
In 2009, in the depths of a hog industry depression, the federal government announced a four-year, $17 million International Pork Marketing Fund to help find new markets.
On May 3, Canada Pork International president Jacques Pomerleau told MPs that the industry wants the fund renewed for five more years. It is set to expire next March.
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He said an evaluation of pork exports suggested 10 percent, or $300 million annually, could be attributed to marketing efforts paid for through the fund.
It allowed CPI to open an office in Tokyo, develop Japan-specific promotional material and promote Canadian pork outside the Tokyo market.
“That’s where the growth is coming from as far as we are concerned,” Pomerleau told MPs.
“It’s coming from the regions outside of Tokyo.”
Nova Scotia Conservative MP Gerald Keddy, parliamentary secretary to trade minister Ed Fast, wondered if the pork industry would be able to fund its own market development after five more years.
Pomerleau said the government should not assume that because other competitor countries spend much more on pork and beef market development than does Canada.
He said the marketing fund for the hog industry is similar to the Legacy Fund that Ottawa created for the beef industry under a previous Liberal government to finance market development after borders closed in the wake of the 2003 BSE discovery.
It is a 10-year $50 million program.
Pomerleau said Canada has pork export opportunities in Argentina, Australia and Russia. However, competitors such as the United States spend more taxpayer dollars on market development, leaving Canada at a disadvantage.
“These are the kinds of things we could do with that fund and it will always evolve,” he said. “That’s why I can’t say we will be self-sustaining after five years.”
Keddy said he understood that Canada must compete if other countries spend more on market development.
“The bottom line becomes that if our competitors in the world marketplace are offering programs that impinge on our ability to export, then it’s important that we find a way to assist our exporters because of that,” he said.
“I’m not trying to cut you off at the knees there.”
