The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board says a shortage of hogs to fill available western Canada pork processing capacity and planned expanded U.S. pork processing capacity are creating new opportunity western Canadian pork producers.
Although higher than anticipated U.S. hog slaughter numbers are expected to pressure U.S. slaughter capacity this fall and put downward pressure on live hog prices, planned U.S. plants due to come on line over the next two years will increase U.S. processing capacity by an estimated 10 percent.
Sask Pork Chair Florian Possberg says expanded U.S. slaughter capacity will create new opportunities for western Canadian producers when processors in western Canada are already looking for more hogs.
Really western Canada is quite different than the Midwest in terms of our processing capacity, because of two significant plants in Brandon and Red Deer.
I think the Brandon Maple Leaf plant is a shift and a bit, maybe 65,000 a week, probably could do 90,000 if pigs were available. The plant in Red Deer, the Olymel plant, is probably running somewhere around 40,000. That plant was actually designed to be double shifted and in theory could do 80,000 a week. The plant in Neepawa, the Hylife plant, I believe is pretty much at capacity at about 31,000 or 32,000 a week.
We really do have excess capacity in western Canada. Our challenge here is having enough hogs to really fill those plants.
~ Florian Possberg, Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
Possberg says hundreds of barns are being built in the U.S. Midwest but we’re still not seeing any significant new contraction in western Canada.
He suggests western Canada’s proximity to the Asian markets which are fueling a lot of international trade plus our health advantage means there really is an opportunity to have a profitable hog industry here.
