Saturday, October 28, 2017

Pork still faces EU challenges

The Canadian pork industry still faces some challenges to begin exporting to the European Union under the new free trade agreement.

Last week it cleared a labeling challenge.

Now it needs to deal with the issue of antimicrobials farmers use when raising pigs. A number of other countries, including Japan and the United States, approve what Canadian farmers use, but not yet the European Union.

On the labeling issue, Ron Davidson, who has been handling trade issues for the Canadian Pork Countil, said “we’ll only be selling certain cuts from each carcass, so it’s very important that we apply the EU health label only to the boxes that are going to Europe, not to those that will be going someplace else.”

Rick Bergman, chairman of the council, said “the elimination of this barrier enables increased sales, which is of utmost importance to a prosperous pork sector.”


“We also use antimicrobial treatments in Canada which have not been approved by the European Union so there is additional research required on the antimicrobial part,” Davidson said.