Farmscape for March 24, 2005  (Episode 1757)

Sask Pork suggests increasing Saskatchewan's slaughter and processing capacity is key to reducing the provincial pork industry's dependence on the United States.

Figures released by Canada Pork International indicate, while global exports of Canadian pork set a new record in 2004, less of that pork was shipped to the US.

In 2004 the United States accounted for approximately 44 percent of total Canadian pork exports, compared to just under 50 percent in 2002 and well over 75 percent in the late 1980's.

Sask Pork Industry and Policy Analyst Brad Marceniuk says, while Canada's dependence on the United States continues to decline, the percentage of Saskatchewan's pork moving south of the border remains much higher than the national average.

Clip-Brad Marceniuk-Sask Pork

Saskatchewan only consumes about 20 percent of the hogs we produce and we export about 80 percent to Canada and the rest of the world.

In 2004 Saskatchewan live hog exports and pork exports totaled almost 125 million dollars.

Of that 70 percent of the sales went to the United States and about 17.4 percent to Japan so basically 87 percent of our sales were to two countries.

With the recent trade disputes we've had between Canada and the US it is very important that Saskatchewan does not rely on one exporter as much as we have in the past.

We therefore need to increase our slaughter and processing capacity.

We only can process about 50 percent of the hogs we produce in the province so we need to look at increasing our slaughter and processing capacity and look for other markets besides our North American markets.

Marceniuk says recent experience with BSE and its impact on the Canadian cattle industry has underscored the danger of over reliance on one market.

He says, in the event that one market shuts down, it's very difficult to quickly find alternate markets.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council