Saskatchewan’s shrinking pork sector could become smaller still, says SaskPork chair Jay McGrath.
McGrath told the recent Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan conference that too many factors have conspired to depress the industry.
“We lost a lot of producers in Saskatchewan and I don’t think we’re totally done with that yet,” he said.
There are 173 registered producers left in the province, compared with 600 to 700 seven years ago, he said. Of the registered producers, about 120 are active, and half of them are Hutterite colonies.
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John Germs, who used to raise hogs near Saskatoon, said he would like to re-enter the industry some day, but he wonders if that will be possible considering the problems the industry faces.
“Going forward, I can probably live with (country-of-origin labelling) that we have to endure nowadays,” he said.
“I can probably live with Brandon, shipping my hogs to Maple Leaf there. My wish list obviously would be a slaughter plant in Saskatchewan.
“Going forward on my farm, we will have no price protection or no AgriStability anymore because we have no more margin.”
Germs said the high Canadian dollar deters an industry that was built on a low dollar. He wondered if producers can raise pigs competitively in Western Canada if the dollar remains higher than 90 cents US.
Humphrey Banack, president of Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said Canada should use COOL to its advantage. He said 70 percent of consumers say they support Canadian production, but they don’t know the origin of the meat they buy.
“I really think sometimes we’re missing that domestic market,” he said.
McGrath said 65 percent of Canadian pork is exported, which means it might not be advisable spending money to convince Canadians to buy home-grown product.
“Labelling in Canada is one thing and getting consumers to buy it is another,” he added.
He said many packers sell their pork loins to Japan because that’s where they can get the most money. As a result, Canadians wouldn’t be able to buy domestic product anyway.
“You go to Costco, you see a bunch of U.S. product because those chains are buying the cheapest they can,” McGrath said.
“The U.S. has the ability to move that pork into here at a very low price.”
Ryan Thompson, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, said the beef sector has realized it needs to pay more attention to its domestic market.
The industry is restructuring the Canada Beef Export Federation and Beef Information Centre to strengthen BIC and do more work at home.
Mark Silzer, president of both the provincial and national bison associations, said most bison is marketed through branded programs that serve the North American market.
“One of the things that we hear all the time from the marketing side of the industry is that the consolidation on the grocery side in Canada is such that the industry in the U.S. is just far more competitive,” he said.
