HOG PRODUCERS NEED URGENT FEDERAL HELP
While Saskatchewan has been spared the most painful impacts of the recession which is gripping the rest of the country, we are not unscathed.
Everyone’s personal savings have taken a big hit. There have been layoffs in the steel and fertilizer industries. Forestry is suffering. But probably the worst trouble for Saskatchewan is in the livestock sector – especially among hog producers.
First it was skyrocketing input costs. Then a gyrating Canadian dollar at a time when market prices were softening. Then, “Country of Origin Labeling” (COOL) in the U.S. which blocked a large part of that market for Canadians. And most recently, it’s the H1N1 Influenza Virus which has been erroneously tagged as “swine flu”, damaging the industry’s market reputation.
Governments cannot expect producers to bear all this adversity alone. Some provinces have acted. The Government of Canada must come to the plate too. They’re overdue.
The Canadian Pork Council has recommended an immediate producer-payment of $30 per hog marketed in 2008. No one wants to ask for a subsidy like this, but without some action of this kind, the Canadian industry could disappear. And that would be a tragedy.
There are just over 8,300 hog farms in Canada. That is down 30% from 2006. We cannot afford to lose any more.
About 70,000 jobs in Canada are a direct result of hog production.
Canada’s exports of live hogs and pork products in 2008 were valued at over $3 billion.
But despite this tremendous value, Canadian hog producers have been losing money on virtually every hog they’ve marketed over the past three years.
A federal cash payment now would help stop the bleeding, and give the industry some breathing space, while they implement restructuring plans to ensure a return to basic profitability.
Mr. Harper’s government must not fail them.
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