New label identifies Ontario grown pork

Thursday, December 19, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario retailers have a new label they can use to assure their customers they’re buying pork produced in the province.

The label has a green circle with the words “Ontario pork” and a grey checkmark in the centre. It’s available for retailers to use voluntarily. It’s available for free and is available now for retailers to use.

It was developed by the Ontario Pork Industry Development Strategy Group, made up of Ontario Pork and three federal processors located in Ontario. The group was started in 2011 and is trying to get “more market share, increased carcass utilization and identify Ontario pork at retail for consumers,” says Mary Jane Quinn, Ontario Pork communications and consumer marketing manager.

The label can only be used on pork from animals born, raised and slaughtered in Ontario. “We do have the retailers sign a label agreement that basically says what they’re going to put the label on is Ontario pork. It has that definition in the agreement,” she explains.

The label was launched as part of a three-month pilot project. “We are doing two new television commercials (featuring the new label plus the Foodland Ontario symbol), which will be running from January to March. The label is ready just a little bit earlier,” she says, noting there are also point-of-sale resources for retailers, such as posters and danglers. Meat case dividers may be available later.

At the start of the project in late spring this year, project participants did a review of various consumer studies from 2010 to 2012. They learned that when consumers went to the meat case they most wanted products that were local, fresh and from family farms. Local was in the top three attributes but isn’t necessarily the first thing people were looking for, she says.

At the end of the pilot project, Quinn says they’ll assess how well they’re doing and what they need to do differently to continue it. “We want to keep it going forward,” she notes. BF