000440 NPPC Welcomes Shipment Of Hogs To CanadaApril 15, 2000Des Moines - The National Pork Producers Council said that a Michigan hog farmer this week had sold a load of U.S. hogs to a Canadian packer, the first such sale “in decades,” and it hoped for more soon. “This sale of U.S. hogs to Canada signals the opening of new live hog markets for U.S. pork producers,” NPPC President Craig Jarolimek, a North Dakota hog producer, said. “However, U.S. producers want the opportunity to export hogs to any Canadian facility,” he said. “That is not yet possible.” The NPPC said a truckload of 185 U.S. market hogs were sold on April 14 by Triangle Farms, a producer in northeastern Michigan, to Maple Leaf Foods Inc. in Burlington, Ontario. A Maple Leaf spokesman was not immediately available for comment. NPPC said the last sale of U.S. hogs into Canada was so long ago that the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had no records on hand of such sales. The Canadian government agreed in October 1999 to consider regions of the United States separately in assessing the danger of pseudorabies disease in U.S. hogs. The decision allowed pork producers in states classified in Stages IV (free status pending) and Stage V (pseudorabies-free) to export hogs to Canada. Michigan was declared a Stage IV state and made eligible for U.S. live hog exports on November 1, 1999. Maple Leaf also owns a new packing plant in Brandon, Manitoba. NPPC said Canadian packers like Maple Leaf say they cannot import slaughter hogs from the United States to a plant that exports pork to Australia because of Australian trade restrictions. “It would be in the best interest of U.S. and Canadian pork producers to resolve this matter,” Jarolimek said. Canada exports thousands of hogs a year to U.S. packing plants, and hog production is booming in Manitoba and other provinces. U.S. producers have complained that Canadian hog exports have often put pressure on U.S. live hog prices.
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