A partner with Polar Pork fears ongoing geopolitical uncertainty will contribute to increased food inflation and impact the economic stability of agricultural production. Due to stable production in the United States and Canada market hog prices have remained above average while shortages of early weaned pigs due to disease pressure in the U.S. and parts of Canada have resulted in periods of record prices.
Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says 2026 is shaping up to be another profitable year for the pork sector but there are several unknowns.
Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:
Any time you have globally instability, that's an issue. Canada and the United States still haven't dealt with the renewal of our trade agreement with the Americans and that really comes to a head in the summer time. June 30th is when our current agreement expires and so that's a big issue.
Currently we're not paying a tariff for both live animals and meat products going back and forth across the border. There's no guarantee that that's going to continue through the summer and into next year so that's a definite uncertainty.The uncertainty could lead to all kinds of inflationary pressures, not just fuel costs but maybe repairs and lumber and all kinds of things so that always a risk.And again, weather has a big impact on what kind of supplies there are out there for our feed ingredients and that could be a real issue.
Possberg notes we're seeing geopolitical uncertainty that wasn't there a year ago.He observes the tariff issue still hangs over our heads and, while it looks like the American-Venezuelan and American-Iranian conflicts are going well for the United States, you never know how those things can escalate or how quickly.
Source : Farmscape.ca