Hearing dates set for national pork promotion and research agency proposal

Thursday, December 17, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

The Farm Products Council of Canada is holding two days of hearings next year to look into the merits of a Canadian Pork Council proposal about establishing a pork promotion and research agency.

The hearings will be held Jan. 19, 2016 at the Delta Bow Valley Downtown Hotel in Calgary and Feb. 16, 2016 at the Montreal Hyatt Regency in Montreal.

Canadian Pork submitted its proposal to Farm Products in July. The new pork agency’s objectives would be to promote domestic pork consumption, further develop export markets for Canadian pork and support technical and market research.

“These objectives are intended to strengthen the markets for hogs and pork, optimize production efficiencies, increase domestic consumption and enhance financial returns from the marketplace,” the proposal says.
The levy to fund the new agency would apply to both domestic production and imports. It would be 75 cents per market hog or live hog equivalent for imports.

Gary Stordy, Canadian Pork public relations manager, says the levy wouldn’t be new for Canadian producers. “The proposal takes into account the existing levies producers pay,” he says.

The new agency is needed because in several provinces the current levy collected and spent on research, promotion and market development is decreasing, the proposal says. Furthermore, imports have never contributed towards research and promotion activities, as there isn’t currently a levy on pork and pork product imports.

The estimated net return to Canadian producers is at least $4.79 for each check off dollar invested, the proposal says.

Many provincial pork boards across Canada, including Ontario Pork, support the proposal.

Stordy says if the proposal were successful the new agency would be set up within the next year. BF