By Bruce Cochrane
The value chain program manager with Quality Meat Packers suggests to boost domestic pork consumption the Canadian pork industry needs to do a better job communicating with the Canadian public about the value of Canadian pork.
While export sales of Canadian pork have continued to increase domestic sales have declined fueled by a general decrease in domestic pork consumption and increased pork imports particularly from the United States.
Katie Sinclair, the value chain program manager with Quality Meat Packers, says the key to getting consumers to try pork is educating them on what cuts are available, their nutritional attributes and how to cook those cuts.
Katie Sinclair-Quality Meat Packers:
I believe, as a Canadian processor, we're starting to realize that we need to be engaging with our consumer.
They're wanting more information so the world of commodity pork has changed.
There's more of a need for value added.
We're also starting to get, for the consumer, they're wanting more information, they're wanting transparency.
They're wanting to know how the pigs were raised, the internal processes at the plant so they're really wanting to have a good understanding of that entire supply chain.
I think we just need to do a better job of telling our story.
We have a great story for the Canadian pork industry from the wonderful producers we have to our processors so we need to be making sure that the information is available for our consumers and we tell the good news story about our Canadian farms and their Canadian pork products.
I think we also need to be going back to branding Canadian pork.
We need to be talking about our story and we need to also be talking about pork products and how to be cooking it so there's a huge opportunity in just really marketing and branding Canadian pork.
Sinclair says Canadians do want to buy Canadian pork so the domestic industry needs to be advocating its story, it needs to be sure labelling information is clear so consumers know their choices and the opportunities are there for them make those choices.
Source: Farmscape