Farm-Scape, Episode 2031

The Director of Denmark's Institute for Food Studies and Agroindustrial Development credits the success of that nation's pork industry to its cooperative structure.

The Danish pork industry consists of two major pork companies, both of them cooperatives.

Karen Hamann says, because they are cooperatives, they have a very strong connection to their suppliers, the farmers, and they have a focus on marketing.

" We are very strong in the first part of the value chain, the cutting and the slaughtering. We develop pigs which are specifically required in specific markets.

We have developed the bacon pig for British market, we have developed heavier pigs specific for the German market and also, because we have this value chain structure and a very strong emphasis on food safety, we're world famous for this issue, we also produce pork for the Japanese market which is a high priced market with very strong requirements for food safety.

Because we have our value chain structure and the close connection between the farmers, the meat processing and the sales operations, we also have this very strong flow of information and it's possible to maintain this chain for food safety.

Hamann adds the Danish pork industry is internationally oriented, exporting 85 percent of its pork to 140 markets worldwide.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.