August 18, 2009

Canadian subsidies for pig producers will result in a flood of cheap pork imports to New Zealand, according to the New Zealand pork industry.

 

New Zealand Pork chief executive Sam McIvor said the Canadian support package will mean cheap subsidised pork will be exported here, undermining the local industry.

 

Canadian farmers will be able to bid for CA$75 million to stop pig production for at least three years. Farmers there have complained that they lose CA$40 for each pig they sell because of high feed costs and weak prices.

 

Stopping production could mean less pork on the international market, but it could be months before the full implications are known for farmers in New Zealand.

 

McIvor said New Zealand already imported 200,000kg of Canadian pork a week, and it was allowed to be produced using growth hormones and animal welfare controls that were not up to New Zealand standards.

 

He said the support package will mean more of this imported pork will end up in bacon, ham and small goods in the shops and on the menus in restaurants - with most New Zealand consumers none the wiser.

 

He has called on the local pork industry to address consumer concerns about animal welfare and said reductions to the length of time sows can be kept in dry stalls need to kick in sooner than previously planned.

 

Canada's pig industry has said it is facing a combination of high feed prices, a buoyant Canadian dollar and a US food-labelling law.

 

About 1000 pig farmers, or 11 percent of Canada's total, left the industry in the past year. The Manitoba Pork Council has set a target of an 18-percent reduction in total production to 25.5 million pigs by 2014.

 

The Pork Industry Board said subsidised pork from the EU that was dumped last year sharply deflated pork prices and sent almost 15 percent of New Zealand farmers out of business.

 

Charles Finny, a board member on Trade and Enterprise New Zealand, predicts the US and the EU will follow Canada's move to ensure their farmers stay competitive.