Ontario Pork’s new man at the helm

by BRIAN LOCKHART & DON STONEMAN

Ontario Pork’s board of directors didn’t have to go far to find a new general manager, plucking strategic planning director Ken Ovington from their staff’s ranks to fill the board’s top hired position, vacant for about 18 months.

Ken Ovington has been director of strategic management. He has been part of an inter-management team, along with financial director Lloyd Bauernhuber and the pork board’s chair, which has been directing operations since April 2008.

“We didn’t search actively outside,” Ontario Pork chairperson Wilma Jeffray says. “In the time that the inter-management team functioned Ken had the characteristics that were necessary for a general manager. He has excellent industry relations both in the producing community and in the processing community. He’s very well respected in the industry. He’s had a lot of experience in strategic planning, business planning, and he’s also very well versed in all areas of operation of Ontario Pork. He has a strong knowledge of every department.”

Ovington has a long history with the pork industry. He grew up on a farrow-to-finish operation when 300 sows was a substantial size. He started working at Ontario Pork in 1992, then left to work for Haybay Genetics in Stratford for several years, returning to Ontario Pork around 2000 and serving under a number of chairmen and general managers since.

His appointment comes at a time when the pork industry is in crisis on several fronts. Prices are in a long downturn and producer numbers are falling rapidly. The future of the board itself appears to be in jeopardy. In October, 2008, the Farm Products Marketing Commission ruled that Ontario Pork’s long standing powers to act as a single-desk selling agent should end last April 1. The Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal was scheduled to begin hearings to reconsider that decision in late November.

“Since the decision, and now the appeals, we are going through a time of restructuring and we’re going through it during the worst crisis the industry has ever seen,” says Jeffray. It heightened the demand to fill the position.

Does Ovington feel he has been appointed captain of the Titanic after it hit an iceberg? Ovington laughs. “Some people might think that,” he says. “I’m fairly confident moving forward.”

Ontario Pork’s next goal will be to move ahead with the six-point strategic plan that was re-affirmed at a policy meeting Nov. 10 and 11. “Producers are a resilient bunch. I think we will get there,” Ovington says.

The biggest concern is price for the product. Another is getting all of the producers heading in one direction. “There are common elements. It’s putting all of them together in one objective.”

Ovington wants to establish an industry round table that will include processors, further processors and retailers as well as producers.

Ovington says the staff has acted professionally throughout the uncertainty that has spanned more than a year.  “There is work to be done and they continue to get it done. There are issues to be worked on. We are paying producers in a timely manner. We move 100,000 plus hogs a week.” BF