Members of the PRRA are developing the organization’s legal structure and business plan
By Jackie Clark
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The Pork Promotion-Research Agency (PRRA) met for the first time on March 15, and identified members that will lead the organization through the first year.
PRRA delegates include producers and other stakeholders from across the Canadian pork industry, Gary Stordy, the director of government and corporate affairs for the Canadian Pork Council, told Farms.com.
“Each province essentially sends two delegates to the meeting to have the election, to sit on the board. Because this was the first year … there really wasn’t a need for election, most of the participants were acclaimed,” Stordy explained.
The PRRA “is a diverse group, there’s more than just producers. We have representation from the restaurant and food industry, importers, and the retail sector that have all agreed to sit on the agency,” he added.
The members that will guide the agency’s first year are:
- Terry Beck, Pork Nova Scotia
- Rick Bergman, Manitoba Pork Council
- Olivier Bourbeau, Restaurants Canada
- Maaike Campbell, Ontario Pork
- Scott Dingwell, PEI Hog Commodity Marketing Board
- Mark Ferguson, Saskatchewan Pork
- Darcy Fitzgerald, Alberta Pork
- Hans Kristensen, Pork New Brunswick
- Pierre Massie, Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec
- Tyler McNaughton, BC Hog Marketing Commission
- Pat Pessotto, Longo’s
- Troy Warren, Sure Good Foods
The members will continue the PRRA’s growth, “give it shape and a mandate moving forward,” Stordy said. Initial tasks include “approving bylaws and developing the business plan or the first year and the five-year strategic plan.”
The PRRA is “intended to be a very small and nimble organization,” he explained. However, staff from across Canada, such as Stordy himself, are assisting where possible in the organization’s early years.
The eventual purpose of the PRRA will be promotion and research, but “we don’t expect any of those to be started for another year, because frankly the agency doesn’t have any money right now,” Stordy explained.
“It’s source of revenue is the 80-cent provincial levy that is in the process of already being spent for this fiscal year. That is collected by the provincial pork organizations and they’ve been allocating it towards the priorities in their respective provinces. Moving forward that will still be the same,” he said. However, the PRRA will assist in focusing efforts and “increasing collaboration among the provinces to share resources, tools and information.”
Another “source of revenue is on products coming into Canada, that levy rate,” Stordy added. “Moving forward there will be a collection or levy charged on imports. The first year is to build (funding) up to a critical mass … and then the board will determine how to allocate those funds.”
The organization’s business and strategic plan will include “the coordinated effort amongst the provincial organizations, trying to identify where there’s some opportunity to share resources,” he said.
Jevtic\iStock\Getty Images Plus photo