LEDUC, Alta. – A vote by Alberta pork producers on whether to return to single-desk selling may be a moot exercise if the provincial government doesn’t want to return to a monopoly seller.
“What happens after the vote is beyond us,” said Jack Kalisvaart, director of Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation.
It’s up to the government to make the final decision if it wants to return to a single-desk selling system for hogs in Alberta or remain with the open marketing system, he said.
Almost two years ago, then agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski said the monopoly would end. There was no producer vote. The minister said producers could vote two years after the monopoly was eliminated to see if they wanted to return to the system that had governed hog selling for more than 25 years.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
This July producers will be mailed ballots to take that vote, but with the trend to open marketing across the Prairies, a return to single-desk selling may not be possible.
“It will be almost impossible to go back to a single-desk system with the move across the country to an open system,” said Kalisvaart.
Manitoba has adopted open marketing. Saskatchewan will lose its monopoly in April, and Ontario hog producers are looking at establishing an open market system.
“If the overwhelming majority want a return to single-desk selling so be it. Will it happen? Time will tell.”
Charlie Jamieson of Leduc said open marketing hasn’t worked the way he hoped.
When he phones the packing plant or the Western Hog Exchange, the pork producers marketing arm, he wants to know exactly what price he will get, not a price range.
Kalisvaart said in theory that’s the way the pork producers hoped open marketing would work. Instead, the competition takes the Western Hog Exchange prices and adds a little to attract hogs.
“We found out very fast after we went to open marketing the system doesn’t work like that. It became very apparent we were the benchmark.”
