A Senior Economist with Farm Credit Canada says lower price inflation for pork compared to the other proteins is a key factor fueling increased consumer demand for pork in North America.
Farm Credit Canada’s 2026 Hog Outlook indicates 2025 was a good year for the Canadian and North American hog sectors and 2026 is expected to be similar.
Justin Shepherd, a Senior Economist with Farm Credit Canada, says North American consumers are choosing pork more often in the grocery stores for multiple reasons.
In North America we’ve started to see consumers start to consume more pork. 2025 in Canada we saw consumption reach a low point and by the end of the year we’re starting to see consumers choose more pork in grocery stores. There’s going to multiple factors why that occurs but when they see competing proteins like beef or chicken, pork has seen lower price inflation over the last three or four years and comes out pretty well on a dollar per kilogram basis so consumers are seeing that and they really value those lower price options.
It’s also seasonal a little bit. Barbecue season, we tend to see an uptick in certain cuts of beef as well as pork and then year-round the other meats are always there for consumer to choose from and then it just comes down to pricing options and what do consumers feel like consuming that day because they really do have the choice.
From a global perspective and how that impacts Canadian pork demand, it really comes down to trade access and having the ability to ship pork freely to places like the United States. But also, when we look at China continuing having a 25 percent tariff on Canadian pork, that remains a bit of an irritant for the industry as to where they send some of their cuts and getting that resolved in the future will definitely help.
~ Justin Shepherd, Farm Credit Canada
Shepherd acknowledges trade uncertainty has definitely been in the news a lot lately but, looking at the year ahead, we know what we’re going to be dealing with over the next few months.
