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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 2017
Pork industry optimistic despite lean times Commission courting backyard producers to ensure quality meets standards
by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – With hog prices continuing their downward slide, the BC pork industry is once again shrinking. When the BC Hog Marketing Commission held its annual meeting in late March, there were just 15 licenced producers left in the province. Nevertheless, meeting attendance was good, with BCHMC general manager Mike Wallis noting, “we had to bring in extra chairs.” Wallis says it’s hard to be optimistic when most producers aren’t receiving enough to cover production costs. That’s why the commission’s new strategic plan is making a priority of raising producer prices. BCHMC is working with
producer groups in Alberta,
all stakeholders. A third of its producers
have left the industry in the past two years but those who remain appear determined to stay. Many have consolidated their operations, with total hog production down just 6% last year.
Backyard herds While the 15 remaining
LAURICA FARMS PHOTO
Saskatchewan and Manitoba to do a cost of production (COP) study to establish a baseline COP with the aim of influencing what producers receive. “It doesn’t make sense that
our price is based on the price of American hogs that don’t have a home. We want a price that is more reflective of the Canadian market,” says Wallis. The strategic plan also calls for the industry to look at
ways to increase its value chain marketing. “We’re trying to figure out
how best to market the BC Pork brand,” Wallis explains, noting this will be a “big project” requiring buy-in from
commercial producers must ship at least 300 marketable hogs a year to maintain their licences, backyard hog production faces no limits. And there is a lot of that. “We have over 625
backyard herds in BC,” says Wallis.
Just like their licenced counterparts, backyard producers must be registered with PigTrace to process their hogs. “That’s something we have
to wrestle with,” Wallis admits, saying “we’re trying to facilitate people licencing their pigs.”
But licencing is a major challenge. Backyard producers aren’t required to pay levies and BCHMC has neither the mandate nor the staff to service them. BCHMC has, however, posted information on its website explaining PigTrace and how unlicenced producers can register.
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between licenced and backyard producers is that all licenced producers must follow Canada Pork’s CQA (Canadian Quality Assurance) and biosecurity protocols while backyard producers aren’t obliged. Despite that, Wallis says the commission is “trying to encourage backyard producers to follow the same biosecurity protocols as we do.”Those protocols are changing as Canada Pork transitions from the CQA program to a new CPE (Canadian Pork Excellence) program. Several Canadian hog farms are piloting the program with the intent of full national implementation in 2018. The new program is largely an update of the CQA program, with more emphasis on sow housing and other requirements to meet changing consumer demands. “It’s all about maintaining our social licence,” Wallis says.
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