Sidebar 2: How ASRA is calculated

Sunday, April 5, 2009

"Quebec's income stabilisation program is a combination of AgriStability and ASRA," says Alain Pouliot, vice-president in charge of the ASRA program at La Financière Agricole du Québec. "The AgriStability program covers two thirds of losses and is funded by both levels of government. The ASRA program is the last program to intervene and it is funded one third by producers and two thirds by the Quebec government."

ASRA numbers are based on cost of production (COP) reports which are tabulated by an independent firm. The insurable portion of the COP corresponds to approximately 80 to 90 per cent of a producer's total COP and doesn't factor in ASRA, crop insurance premiums or the return on equity. "The COP for the piglets' program, for instance, is calculated by averaging the production costs of operations ranging from 150 to 600 sows every four to five years, but each expense is adjusted yearly to reflect the market situation," explains Pouliot

There were 3,9171 registered hog farmers in Quebec in 2007, but only 1,400 hog farms were registered under the market hog and piglets insurance programs in 2008. Part of the discrepancy can be attributed to contract hog producers, but most of the difference is due to multiple hog farmers (i.e. family members) owning shares in the same hog farm.

Approximately 50 per cent of the 7,700 000 hogs for which compensation was paid were owned by belong to independent producers.