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 1484

A Director with Sask Pork says higher volumes of Canadian hog exports into the US last year can be blamed on a combination of factors, chief among them BSE, not on government subsidies.

Petitions filed by the National Pork Producers Council contend increased volumes of Canadian hogs entering the US are due to unfair subsidies and call for countervail and antidumping duties to offset harm caused to American producers.

Florian Possberg, who traveled to Washington for US Commerce Department hearings on the issue, says Canada believes its hogs benefit the North American market.

"In the age of free trade we've allowed goods to flow to where you can create the most value and there's no question that the mid-west has attracted Canadian feeder pigs.

The cheap corn prices they have there allow them to have quite an advantage finishing hogs. Their large slaughter plants seem to do very well in terms of processing hogs at the end of the day.

We have seen hogs move into that area, particularly because we were disadvantaged in 2003 with the BSE crisis and the impact it had on our pork demand domestically.

We also struggled internationally because Canada was having issues with BSE and SARS and West Nile and you name it.

The silly part is that our hogs, once they go into the US did not have the negative implication that Canadian pork had in international markets".

Possberg says the fact is that Canadian hog production is not subsidized. He says the Americans were simply in a position to bid more for Canadian hogs in 2003.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.