Canada’s governments must offer their hog producers some assurance that emergency loans will be available to them before Christmas, the Canadian Pork Council said Wednesday.
The council, at a press conference Wednesday morning in Ottawa, said hog producers are requesting loans, repayable with interest, as opposed to grants or any kind of handout.
“We are asking for some breathing room to allow us to make sense of the current pressures, the high feed costs, the high value of the Canadian dollar, the low hog prices, and to determine our future,” said CPC president Clare Schlegel.
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The council had called last month for the federal government to make improvements to the
current Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program, for short-term loans for hog farmers, and for “immediate” advances against future CAIS payments.
Schlegel, a hog farmer from Tavistock, Ont., stressed that unlike other sectors hit by the higher Canadian dollar, hog farmers cannot just shut down their barns, walk away and start back up a few weeks later. Live animals are involved and must be cared for, and “there are no parts to be kept in inventory waiting for a better day,” the council said.
The CPC noted that the European Union has just reintroduced export refunds for pork, adding that “we thought these had disappeared forever.” Australia has also launched a safeguard investigation against pork imports, the council noted.
The council also noted that the long-term outlook remains positive as world demand for pork continues to grow. “We just need to get there,” said Schlegel in a release.
The Manitoba Pork Council said Wednesday that it had met with several Prairie MPs to discuss potential solutions for hog farmers facing some of the lowest prices seen in over a decade.
“Many family hog operations may not survive without some form of temporary loan program — their ability to recover will be lost,” said council chairman Karl Kynoch.
Losses per pig now run above $50 a head, which translates to losses of over $45,000 a month for a 500-sow farrow-to-finish operation, the Manitoba council noted.
