The Canadian government’s loan guarantees and exit funding for beleaguered hog farmers don’t seem nearly as onerous to the main U.S. hog farmers’ group as it had previously feared.
Nick Giordano, counsel on international trade policy for the National Pork Producers Council, told the Canadian program Farmscape Thursday that Ottawa’s plans are “a more modest program” than $800 million in supports that the Canadian Pork Council has previously requested.
“Having said that, there are a number of outstanding questions we have about the program and I think we’re going to withhold further judgment of the programs until we know what the details are,” said Giordano, who’s based in the NPPC’s hometown of Washington, D.C.
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“Specifically, I’m talking about the loans, and to what extent are the loans on commercial terms, and how preferential are they? Are producers getting access to below market rates, what are the repayment terms — those sorts of issues.”
The Canadian government and pork producer representatives are still working on the specifics of the program, Giordano noted on Farmscape, a hog industry-related broadcast sponsored by the Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.
Before Ottawa’s programs were announced, the NPPC, citing the CPC’s proposals, warned in July that it would keep “all options open” if Ottawa were to give Canadian hog farmers programs that amounted to a “cash bailout.”
The programs Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz ultimately announced in August include a long-term loan program, aimed at helping hog farmers obtain credit for restructuring, and a $75 million hog farm transition program, aimed at helping producers exit the industry for a minimum of three years.
The package also included $17 million for Canada Pork International to work on export market development.
