Sidebar: Aliments LucyPorc wins the EU race

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

For a long time, the Canadian pork industry thought that Les Viandes duBreton would be the first Canadian packer to breach the European Union trade wall. But in late winter, another Quebec company, Aliments Lucyporc, with a plant in Yamachiche, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, cracked the wall first.

Independently owned Lucyporc was formerly owned by Maple Leaf, says Martin Rice, executive director, Canadian Pork Council, which manages the Canadian Quality Assurance (CQA) program for pork. A company press release issued March 2 says that "specialized Nagano hogs" are raised on "only two CQA Certified family farms" from known specialized genetics – Landrace/Large White X Nagano Duroc – and fed a special meat and bone meal-free diet.

There are hopes that Maple Leaf's Brandon plant might meet EU standards at some point soon, as well as the Hytek plant in Springhill, Man. Smithfield's Tarhill plant in North Carolina, considered the largest in the world, is cleared to sell pork to the EU, Martin adds.

Martin notes that there are still tariffs to be paid. And Canada hopes to be able to match Chile's preferential trade access to the EU when Canadian negotiations bear fruit. Terms considered under last summer's failed World Trade Organization talks would have been a major breakthrough, he says. BP