MB Pork Chair Steps Down After 11 Years

Karl Kynoch has stepped down as chair of the Manitoba Pork Council after 11 years.

 

He gave his final industry address Wednesday at the group's Annual General Meeting in Winnipeg.

 

Kynoch says there are a number of challenges for the industry going forward.

 

"I think going forward this industry will be viable. There's a lot of challenges going forward; plant capacity has to be filled, we don't have enough pigs to stay viable or competitive with some of our counterparts with the bigger plants," he said. "Our building costs for infrastructure here is way higher than our US counterparts, so we're going to have to figure out a way to get more competitive with the cost of infrastructure, the cost of feeding, and how do we get the labour into this industry."

 

He adds that 2014 was a very good year for producers, allowing them to recoup some of the losses from previous years.

 

Kynoch noted one thing he would like to see in the future is a pork grading system that would work similar to beef.

 

George Matheson of Stonewall has been selected as the organization's new chair.