TORONTO — Last year, Canada became the world’s largest exporter of pork, shipping 600,000 tonnes out of the country and earning $2.3 billion in revenues.
That ranking does not count sales between European Union countries.
This year, according to Canadian Pork Council vice-president Carl Moore, the gap will grow between Canada and its nearest rival.
Moore told a trade conference April 10 that Canada could export 700,000 tonnes of pork this year, worth close to $3 billion.
“In June 2000, we became the world’s number one pork exporter,” he said.
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“It looks like this year, we will do even better.”
One of the reasons is foot and mouth disease in the EU.
At least temporarily, it has taken second-place Denmark out of the market and Japanese buyers have helped drive the Canadian price as high as $191 per hundred kilograms in some provinces. Less than two months ago, the price was less than $150, he said.
“What we are getting now may be the peak for the year, but we are projecting strong prices through 2001.”
Moore said Canada may pick up some Japanese market this year because of the Danish problem.
But the more positive news is that sales to Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and China are rising.
Moore said the emergence of China as a growing market is great for Canadian producers. While nearby countries and Hong Kong buy “high end” products, China buys innards.
He said a recent sale was for sliced intestine.
“It dovetails beautifully with our other markets,” said Moore.
“The market in China is unbelievable, in terms of potential.”
He said one of Canada’s great marketing advantages is that it can export fresh chilled pork almost anywhere in the world and guarantee a 40-day shelf life once it gets there.
“No other country can promise that,” he said.
Last year, 52 percent of Canada’s production was exported. This year, it could reach 55 percent.
Those numbers suggest that Canada will ship fewer live hogs into the United States, Moore said. Instead, more will be processed in Canada and exported as higher-value pork.
Moore told the conference, which was organized by the Ontario and Canadian federations of agriculture, that the hog industry wants more market access around the world and clear science-based rules on food safety.
He said there should be a way for national governments to make sure before they implement domestic support policies that they are immune to countervail action under trade rules.
The hog industry has an expensive experience to make the point.
In 1985, the Progressive Conservative federal government launched a new program for the hog industry — a tripartite federal, provincial and industry program.
The Americans launched a countervail action and by the time the last action was settled last year, Moore figures it cost the industry between $6 billion and $10 billion.
“We want to avoid that ever happening again,” he said.
