Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1343

Manitoba Agriculture and Food says it appears the slide in live hog prices has finally begun a long awaited turn around.

A higher Canadian dollar, reduced North American demand for pork and the impact of BSE have contributed to a dramatic drop in Canadian hog prices.

Provincial Market Analysis and Statistics Branch Manager Janet Honey says the slide has hurt Canadian hog producers and packers.

"For the whole of this year the demand for pork, particularly Canadian pork in overseas markets has been weaker than expected because of our stronger dollar relative to the US dollar.

The Americans have been able to sell more pork and increase their market share just because they are more competitive.

The other thing that has affected the plants has been the BSE situation because Canadians are eating more beef, they've been eating less pork.

That has meant the processors have had to ship into non traditional markets in the US at lower prices than they normally would have got for their pork.

The third thing that's happened is the fact that the demand for pork in the US has been lower than expected.

Everybody thought that when beef prices went to record highs, since the BSE situation started, that people would be switching to pork and for some reason this hasn't happened.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens now that the border is open to certain cuts of beef, whether we will see more pork consumption in Manitoba.

Maybe now that summer's over and people won't be barbecuing as many steaks or ribs or whatever they've been doing with beef that they will start buying more pork".

Honey says wholesale prices for pork primal cuts increased quite significantly last week and hog prices also went up.

She says that suggests we've seen the low in both pork and hog prices in the US which would impact what happens in Canada.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.