Canadian pork industry groups wants help

The Canadian Pork Council, Canada Pork International and the Canadian Meat Council have sent a letter to federal officials to jointly emphasise the situation the export-dependent sector is facing, including a rise in production input costs, including feed and the impact of a strong Canadian dollar.

Collaboration
“We need government collaboration now,” said CPC president Clare Schlegel.

“Our industry is not looking for a hand-out, but we do need to work with government to find real solutions, both now and in the future, to drastically improve our ability to compete globally with other pork-exporting countries.”

Report
To achieve that, the associations presented the government a report entitled, ‘Canadian pork value chain: strengthening our competitiveness’, outlining the sector’s short- and long-term challenges and suggested steps for future success and growth.

There are five main areas that the industry wants Ottawa to take a look at: costs, labour, innovation, risk management and exports.

South Korea
Not to be outdone by their US counterparts, Canadian pork producers are also urging Ottawa to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with South Korea.

Martin Rice, executive director of the CPC, said, “The United States has replaced us as the number one [pork] exporter to Korea. We would look at the situation becoming even more favorable to the United States if it has its agreement put into place and Canada doesn’t have one.”

Related news items:
• FTA aid for Korean pig farmers (11 Apr 2007)
• Warm welcome for trade deal US-Korea (3 Apr 2007)
• NPPC wants ‘ambitious deal’ for South Korea (22 Mar 2007)

Related websites:
• Canadian Pork Council (CPC)
• Canada Pork International
• Canadian Meat Council

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