The Rural Voice, 1999-01, Page 17demanded workers take 40
per cent pay cuts. The
workers went on strike
shutting down a processor
that normally slaughters
25,000 pigs a week.
Producers who had
contracts with Quality
Packers suddenly had no
market for their pigs. The
pigs came back into the
pool and. Ontario Pork had
to struggle to find
processors outside the
province who could take
the pigs.
The current situation is so
grave that it reaches far
beyond the farm gate.
Ontario Pork estimates
42,000.non-farm jobs hang
in the balance because of
their dependence on the
pork industry. That estimate was
reinforced by the number of suppliers
who took part in the rally, everyone
from - feed dealers to building
contractors.
"It's the first rally I've ever bccn to
in my life," said one chagrined feed
dealer who travelled on a bus with
pork producers from Huron County.
That community -wide impact in
the prime hog producing areas
of Ontario was demonstrated
by letters of support from major
businesses in rural areas. Fred
Groenestege of Fred Groenestege
Construction Limited at Sebringvillc
pointed out 99 per cent of his
company's $15 million in sales
annually come from the pork
industry, and the jobs of 70 people at
his company depend on the
governments acting quickly to help
fanners.
Lloyd Crawford of Perth County
Co-operative Inc. said his company
does $16 million in feed business a
year, 31 per cent of it to pork
operations.
"We already see our dollars tied up
in accounts receivable increasing and
using up our operating dollars we use
to purchase inventory and operate
business," Crawford wrote in a letter
to Villeneuve. "Our concern is that
farmers will tend to maintain their
payments with the banks and extend
their credit requirements with
suppliers. We are not in the lending
industry and in most cases do not
No farms
No food
No Fu
EVEIE IS
MAKING MONEY
FROM MY HOGS
EXCEPT ME!
Building contractor Neil Beurermann of Brussels and feeder dealer
Gary Dauphin (left) of Walton, stand with Brussels -arca pork
producers Neil Ilemingway and Dave Linton at the rally.
have security on this trade account
receivable."
Still, the first line of the crisis
continues to be producers
themselves. Will Nap, chairman of
Ontario Pork, erpphasizcd just how
serious the situation is when he told
the crowd Ontario's pork industry
stands to lose half its 6,000 producers
in the next three years unless
emergency help was forthcoming
from the federal, and provincial
governments.
History, from the last time pork
prices were hit anything close to this
hard, shows that the effects will take
a heavy toll in the coming years, with
12-15 per cent of producers being
lost in 1999 alone, Nap said.
Wilkinson said a plan to help
suffering producers would already be
in place if the federal and provincial
governments had acted earlier on a
recommendation for a national
disaster program. Representatives
from 33 farm organizations had come
up with a plan last winter and
presented it to the ministers of
agriculture at their meeting in July
but "the only decision they made was
not to make a decision".
Wilkinson said the plan, which
would kick in if the income of a farm
droppcd below 70 per cent of it's
five-year average, would form a third
line of defence for farmers after crop
insurance and NISA savings.
"Before the program kicks in you
have already eliminated your whole
household income,"
Wilkinson said of the
proposed disaster
program.
Speaking at the
press conference,
Wilkinson said
Canada had bccn
quick to cut subsidies
after signing the
GATT agreement and
has far less support
for its farmers than
other trading partners.
Of the members of the
Organization for
Economic Co-
operation and
Development, Canada
ranks above only
Australia and Ncw
Zealand in support, he
said.
"We're way, way, way below what
is required (in subsidy cuts) by the
World Trade Organization,"
Wilkinson said.
Current programs just can't deal
with the magnitude of the current
crisis, Wilkinson said pointing out
that a pork producer who had bccn
paying into NISA since the
beginning would have only 18 days
coverage in the kind of losses now
being recorded.
"When you get into a trough as
deep as the one wc'rc in in Ontario
now, it (NISA) can't do much to
MO," he said.
Urban reporters quizzed Nap and
Wilkinson about the gap between the
farm price and the supermarket price
for pork but, with a representative
from Maple Leaf Meats in the room,
both refused to point fingers. Others
weren't so reticent. In his speech to
producers Villeneuve attacked
packers and retailers for not passing
along savings to consumers.
n a press release handed to
reporters at the rally, Maple Leaf
called the pricing issue "a red
herring".
"The hog price problem has been
created by having more pigs
available than there is processing
capacity, short-term, to slaughter
those pigs. All the demand -creation
in the world won't solve the
problem."
While the major packers and
supermarkets have shown little
JANUARY 1999 13