Washington - The bottleneck at U.S. hog slaughter plants that has depressed market prices could be “profoundly” eased by shipping live hogs from some U.S. states to western Canada for processing, a National Pork Producers Council official said Thursday.
The U.S. group raised the proposal in talks on Wednesday with Canadian agriculture officials, according to Nick Giordano, the pork council's trade expert. The proposal, which also has the support of the U.S. Agriculture Department, would mean trucking hogs from U.S. northern Plains states to slaughter plants in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia that have unused capacity, he said.
“This could have a profound effect on market prices,” Giordano said in an interview. “This makes commercial sense and it's a natural fit for our producers in those geographical areas.”
He estimated that if animal disease regulatory issues are resolved, as many as 30,000 U.S. hogs could be shipped to the western provinces each week. In the meeting, Canadian officials indicated a willingness to consider easing pseudorabies restrictions that would allow U.S. corn belt states that have not yet eradicated the disease to export hogs under a carefully-monitored program, Giordano said.
The plan, however, would require U.S. government financial assistance to American hog producers to compensate them for the Canadian currency exchange rate, he said.
The pork council has blamed a plunge in U.S. market prices paid to farmers on bottlenecks at U.S. slaughter houses, exacerbated by record numbers of Ontario hogs shipped across the border for processing. But several plants in western Canadian provinces have unused capacity that is closer to some U.S. states than to Ontario farmers, he said.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Return to Home Page