SASKATOON (Staff) – Canada’s third largest pork customer is buying pork after a year-long fight over a health certificate, said the general manager of Saskatchewan Pork International, the province’s hog marketing agency.
Jim Morris just returned from a trip to Russia where he managed to soothe both sides in the dispute and get pork moving again between the two countries.
“Sometimes you get lucky,” said Morris, of Saskatoon.
It all began with a difference of opinion over the wording of the health certificates Canada issues.
“Russia was overzealous over what was on the certificate and Canada was very overzealous of how they interpreted that,” he said.
The dispute was over PRRS, also called mystery swine disease. It’s a flu-like condition that can cause abortions in hogs.
Before the sales stopped, Russia was Canada’s third largest customer after the United States and Japan.
Canada shipped 12,000 to 13,000 tonnes of pork a year to the country.
“I can see it going a lot higher than that,” said Morris.
Since the dispute European hog producers have filled the void.
