MarketsFarm — The current state of Manitoba’s pork industry is evident in a pair of large investments within the sector, according to the general manager of Manitoba Pork.
Cam Dahl, who was named GM of the provincial pork organization in February last year after previously working for Manitoba Beef Producers and Cereals Canada, cited two projects he considers to be a boon for Manitoba’s pork industry.
The first was the $182 million, 73,000-square foot expansion of the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Winnipeg. built for packaging pre-cooked bacon and completed last October.
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“Those were 350 jobs we were exporting to the United States previously,” Dahl said.
Later this month, Dutch hog breeder Topigs Norsvin will officially open its new nucleus facility named Innova Canada in the Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone, at a site about 100 km northwest of Portage la Prairie. The company’s Canadian headquarters are in Oak Bluff, just outside Winnipeg.
“It’s a $35 million investment and it comes with 35 high-tech jobs,” Dahl added. “These are the kinds of investments that are happening because we have that critical mass of production here. The industry’s growing and maybe there are some bottlenecks that are holding that up, but… we see the demand for the product.”
Worldwide, there is plenty of uncertainty according to Dahl. African swine fever (ASF) continues to threaten pigs in countries including China, the Philippines and more recently in Germany.
“There’s close to $500,000 coming from producers that goes into research on things like protecting ourselves from ASF, working on production diseases like porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED),” he said. “What are the best practices to minimize some of those costs? Research plays a really large part and (we’re) making sure we’re prepared for those large shocks…We’ve come a long way on biosecurity over the last 20 to 25 years.”
Meanwhile, recent COVID-19 lockdowns in China could negatively impact the number of pig exports going to the country and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is threatening feed grain shipments.
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the December lean hogs contract on Thursday touched 88.25 U.S. cents per pound, its highest price in a month. But while Dahl says prices are strong for Manitoba pork, costs are also high.
“The prices of wheat, corn and soymeal are not cheap,” he said. “We’re not in a drought in the Great Plains this year, but the last couple of years, the drought really did have a significant impact because of the prices people were seeing for feed.”
A porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) outbreak first detected on Manitoba hog farms last year is slowing down, Dahl said, and he believes the pork industry will continue to grow in the coming months.
“Since 2017, we’ve seen about 40 barns built since (Manitoba’s moratorium on new hog barns) was lifted,” Dahl added. “But there’s that uncertainty and it’s something that comes with the industry and we’ll need to be prepared for that in case shocks do happen.”
— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.
