Quebec’s hog farming sector has received approval from the province’s ag and food marketing board reulator for its own form of supply management.
According to a release Tuesday from the Federation des producteurs de porcs du Quebec (FPPQ), the Regie des marches agricoles et alimentaires du Quebec (RMAAQ) officially approved the Gestion equilibree de la production (GEP) or “balanced production management” regulation in a decision handed down Friday.
“With GEP, we have accomplished a major phase of our work plan and we’re indicating to the government that pork producers are collectively taking care of themselves,” FPPQ president Jean-Guy Vincent, a producer at Ste-Seraphine, said in the release.
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The GEP, according to the hog farmers’ federation, “will (make) greater efficiency in the sector possible through better co-ordination between farm production and slaughterhouse operations, in order to avoid situations where surpluses would effectively lower the average market price.”
With a new marketing agreement reached with most of the province’s pork plants in mid-2009, plus the new GEP regulation, pork producers “now have a management tool and can respond to government and public concerns about pork production,” the FPPQ said.
“In the opinion of the board, the (GEP) is of a nature likely to contribute positively to the development of the pork sector and toward the effective, orderly marketing of hogs,” FPPQ quoted the RMAAQ ruling as saying.
The FPPQ emphasized it “has worked for nearly three years to make this regulation a unifying plan for all sector stakeholders.”
“The board takes note of the collaborative work done by the federation and other stakeholders in developing the proposed regulation,” the RMAAQ was quoted as saying. “The stakeholders maintain that the regulation respects and properly fulfills the provisions of the agreement.”
