The Rural Voice, 2004-09, Page 65PERTH "elk
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
.Pat Louwagie, President
519-393-6424
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA
Studying where the future is headed
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
"Know where the industry is
going and try to be there first." This
was a quote from a buyer for A&P
Stores that was made to a combined
group of county directors from Huron
and Perth at a meeting in his office in
early August.
Our two counties have combined
efforts over the last year or so to
better serve our producers and to
hopefully help the provincial board
with more grassroots input. As part of
our combined initiative we started a
S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses.
opportunities and threats) analysis in
May of this year.
We identified several factors that
have an impact on the direction the
pork industry is going. What I would
like to focus on today is just one of
those factors.
We identified the requirement to
better understand the needs of our
consumers through knowing more of
their buying habits. patterns and
concerns as being major short and
long-term goals. We felt that one
effective way to understand this was
to speak directly to the retail sector.
We did this through two separate
meetings with retail buyers.
The first meeting, held on June 2,
was with Murray Parkins, Director of
Operations for Lumsden Bros., a
buying group for Sobeys. Some of
the highlights from that meeting
were:
• The domestic market has pretty
much plateaued, with any increase in
the consumption of pork coming at
the expense of beef or chicken.
• Higher prices = slower inventory
turns = increased waste = lower
profits!
• More market share could only
come from improved meat quality.
• He referred to the consumer as
"she".
• The most common questions of
store meat managers involved food
safety.
• The stores used to get paid for
bones and fat, etc..., but now since
B.S.E. have to pay to dispose of these
byproducts.
The biggest surprise of the
meeting came when he indicated that
he was not familiar with C.Q.A.
(Canadian Quality Assurance). He
made it clear that he could not use
C.Q.A. as a selling point until "every
pork chop in my meat counter is
guaranteed to be C.Q.A.". As a result
of that meeting, Perth County Pork
Producers Association, at our June
monthly meeting, passed a resolution
to he sent to the provincial board
(Ontario Pork) that called for 100 per
cent compliance by Ontario
Producers with C.Q.A.
Also present at the meeting was
Jim Vidozy. the retail expert for
Ontario Pork. Jim will be developing
a brochure/pamphlet that Mr. Parkins
has agreed to send to the meat
managers in his 250 stores to help
them deal with the concerns and
questions of potential consumers.
The second meeting was on
August 10 in Toronto with Mr. Paul
Fortin who is Vice -President of Fresh
Foods for A&P stores. Mr. Fortin is a
forward thinking individual who
offered his opinion of what producers
need to do in the future.
• He believes hogs are getting too
big at 92 kg. dressed and is currently
paying a premium of up to seven
cents per pound on some cuts from
85 kg. hogs. His reasoning is that the
portion sizes from the larger loins and
hams are bigger than what consumers
want. Baby boomers, in his mind.
will want smaller portions in the
future.
• He would also like to see more
internal "marbling" or fat content in
the meat. His contention is that
today's pork is becoming too lean
and that consumers risk ending up
with a product that cooks too dry and
Tacks the flavour that some additional
fat content would enhance.
• He also sees a trend towards
more convenience meals that are
microwaveable or ready in minutes.
• Further, he believes that there k
a portion of his market who will want
what he called a "natural" product.
He believes that this product would
be antibiotic free, but would likely
not be organic, which he referred to
as being "too expensive". He is
working toward a definition of
"natural". When we know what that
definition is. producers can decide
what premium they would need to till
that demand.
Jim Vidozy was once again with
us at this meeting and will follow up
with Mr. Fortin on the development
of the definition of "natural". Mr.
Vidozy's help on behalf of Ontario
Pork was invaluable in setting up and
participating in these two meetings.
It is premature at this time to say
where these initiatives by Perth and
Huron may take us. I do believe that
we have a better understanding of
what our consumers are going to
want in the future. and it is our
intention to relay this information on
to the provincial board.
The challenge then. that our
industry faces, is continuing to know
what consumers want and trying to be
the leader in meeting those needs,
now and in the future.0
— Submitted by Russ Danbrook
PERTH COUNTY
PORK PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops
• Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops
• Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage
• Bacon Burgers
• Teriyaki Pork Steaks
• Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora)
Walter Bosch (Monkton)
Ted Keller (Mitchell)
348-8167
356-9000
348-9836
SEPTEMBER 2004 61