The chair of the Canadian Pork Council is looking back on 2021.
"Continual focus on sustainability for producers is always on our minds," said Rick Bergmann. "That kind of dictates our thought processes. We export over $5 billion worth of pork annually and this creates a huge economic engine for our country. It's vital to ensure that that all works because we know what starts on the farm, many people benefit from it."
Bergmann says the drought this year impacted the cost of producing pork quite substantially.
"We've had drought in many areas of North America and for sure Western Canada. That has impacted the cost of producing pork quite substantially. It has impacted any producer that uses grains for any livestock production. That's a significant increase in cost to the farms and I'm sure many people are seeing that impact also at the grocery stores these days."
Bergmann says the organization has lots on its plate heading into 2022.
"We established a Pork Promotion and Research Agency through the Farm Marketing Council. That's going to ramp up this upcoming year, probably in April or May, where there will be funds available for research and promotion. That's a bit of a shining light for us."
He says African swine fever (ASF) will also be a big focus in 2022.
"We cannot afford to be impacted by this in our country," added Bergmann
Bergmann notes they are also looking at developing a Canadian pork pricing mechanism, as right now all of the pork is getting priced out on the U.S. formula.
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