Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is shutting down operations for one
day a week because it can’t get enough hogs for its slaughtering plant at
Brandon, Man.
It’s been a longstanding issue in Manitoba, but the slowdown
at Brandon is a first and is scheduled to last five months.
Karl Kynoch, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council, says
it has been trying for years to get new hog barns built, but government
environmental restraints stand in the way.
“This
temporary “brown-out” is because of a lack of market hogs. This situation will
not improve until producers build more barns to produce market hogs,” says Karl
Kynoch, Chair of Manitoba Pork Council (MPC).
Kynoch indicates producers will invest in new barns but
the current environmental regulations are killing that investment opportunity. “We
have better technologies that protect the environment, but are more cost
effective for producers,” says Kynoch.
“It has been a very frustrating exercise. We developed
programs which are market-driven, would bring in millions of dollars of new
investment, and create thousands of new jobs,” says Kynoch.
The council “has been meeting regularly with government
and processors for the past five years to resolve the challenges of
insufficient market hogs not matching processing capacity,” he said in a news
release.
The council and meat packers “have developed financial
packages to lever new private capital investment at the farm level, with some
short-term support from government. For example, MPC met last week in Ottawa
with government and industry officials to explain the core programs, which
would resolve the lack of market hogs,” Kynoch’s news release says.
“The number of market hogs could be increased as we have
the sow base and the processing capacity to take the pigs.
“But we need some help to lever more private capital
investment on-farm, and for government to stop forcing regulations, which
discourage investment and do nothing for the environment,” he said.
Manitoba Pork Council’s role and mission is to represent
the province’s 500 pork producers by fostering the sustainability and
prosperity of the pork industry for the good of hog producers and all
Manitobans.
