On Friday, at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment, Canada's agriculture minister announced over 15 million dollars in funding for initiatives to assist the Canadian pork industry in developing new markets.

Gerry Ritz told those on hand his government is dedicated to helping the pork industry not only recover but also grow and capture new markets.

Gerry Ritz-Canada Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

The biggest part of this investment, almost 10 million dollars, goes to a pork research cluster.

That's a little different than government's clusters, they usually are.

As you know we've already announced research clusters in canola, dairy, pulse.

They're a great way of getting science and industry pulling together to move the industry forward over all.

I want to recognize the great work the Canadian Pork Council has done, the leadership role, for getting this venture off the ground.

All told it will bring together researchers across Canada and get everybody moving in the same direction with a results based direction.

They will put their heads together to find new ways to help our Canadian pork producers and processors get out in front of the competition in a wide range of areas from food safety and quality to animal welfare to feeding and handling systems.

The focus will be getting ideas out of the lab and into the market where they can help our pork producers, processors and exporters grow demand, cut costs and ultimately improve their bottom lines.

Mr Ritz notes the Canadian Pork Council will receive 3.3 million dollars to strengthen the national swine traceability system and move closer to its goal of tracking the movement of hogs across this country.

The Canadian Swine Exporters Association will receive 1.4 million dollars which will allow it to go after a number of markets, including the European Union, Russia and Latin America, for leading edge Canadian genetics.

And the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement will receive just under 840 thousand dollars to develop methods to predict and to promote marbling in pork products.