Farmscape for December 21, 2017

The past-Chair of Sask Pork  remains optimistic as the province's pork sector moves into another new year.
With 2017 winding to a close the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board has installed its new Board of Directors.
Retiring Director and Sask Pork past-Chair Florian Possberg says highlights in 2017 included Saskatchewan's successful biosecurity response to a PED outbreak in neighboring Manitoba, developments in trade including the start of the renegotiation of NAFTA and efforts to resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership following the U.S. withdrawal and the coordinated efforts of the livestock sector to streamline the provincial permitting process for new livestock production facilities.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
It all comes down to being able to put together a business plan that makes sense.
When we invest in new facilities it's for 25, 30, 40 years so we need to have confidence.
The opportunity to control disease, the opportunity to have beneficial trade agreements so we can export our products, the ability to actually build facilities where the science is proper, all those things need to come together.
Some of these things will unfold in 2018 because I think we will see how the trade thing turns out.
We will see if we can streamline our permitting process and, again, we will continue our efforts to keep disease out.
If all those things comes together, I'm optimistic that we can see a very successful future in the next few years.
In my case, I've had the opportunity to serve on the Sask Pork Board for the last six years.
I know we've got an excellent group of people coming in to serve on our next board so that's really cause for a lot of confidence and optimism.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork