The Rural Voice, 1995-10, Page 571
PERTH iftk
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
John VanNes, President
519-393-6479
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
Price is pork producers' No. 1 concern
Any opinions expressed herein
may not necessarily reflect the views
of the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
Ask any pork producer what their
No. 1 concern is for the Ontario pork
industry today and the answer you
will most likely receive is "getting a
fair price for our produce." Producer
frustration has been increasing, even
though prices have been strong as of
late. The packers claim they require
more hogs to keep their lines running
efficiently at the same time as more
weaners are being shipped into the
U.S. Weaners shipped into the U.S.
for the first six months of 1995
totalled 118,000 with 22,000 shipped
in June alone! That is double the
number shipped in June, 1994. It is
no wonder, then, that this topic
dominated the discussion at the
September meeting of the Perth
County Pork Producers' Association.
As our guests. at the meeting, we
had the CEO of Ontario Pork, Julien
Den Tandt, and Rick Scaggs, who is
responsible for the Sales and Market
Development Division at the Board.
Julien began by speaking about the
Agrimetrics comparison report that
was completed and released to the
Board in August. Julien explained
that Agrimetrics is a U.S. based
company that was hired by both the
Board the packing industry to
independently assess what the
Ontario packers pay for hogs versus
their American counterparts. The
Board felt the study was required so
that a truly independent and unbiased
analysis of a sound price per
kilogram of lean meat comparison
with U.S. could be acquired.
The results of the study clearly
show that Ontario hogs are superior
in quality to U.S. hogs. While many
of the directors were expecting to
hear exactly what the difference in
value between the two countries'
hogs actually was, Julien explained
that the difference could not be
announced at this time. The reason
for this was that Agrimetrics received
information from the U.S. packers
under confidentiality agreements
which have to be honoured for the
time being. Julien did say that the
difference in value was very much in
line with the Board's historical
calculations of the U.S. packers'
costs of purchasing hogs.
The members of the Negotiating
Committee, who are Julien, Rick and
Mary Lou McLeod, Communications
Manager at the board, as well as
directors Joanne Rombouts, Carl
Moore, and Helmuth Spreitzer, will
be meeting with packers in
September to attempt to bring
Ontario prices in line with prices in
the U.S. One of the ways that this
could be partially accomplished is by
removing the divisor of 105.7 from
the formula. The formula takes the
U.S. price and divides it by 105.7,
which is the average index of hogs in
Ontario at this time, to reach a base
price for a 100 index hog. There has
been a lot of criticism of this practice,
because it assumes that the average
hog in Ontario and the U.S. is of the
same quality, which the Agrimetrics
report shows is not true. The
Negotiating Committee has attempted
in the past negotiations to have the
divisor removed, but the packers have
rejected this move. The Agrimetrics
report gives the committee the facts it
requires to meet this challenge.
There was some discussion as to
what would be the Board's next move
if the packers failed to bring Ontario
prices in line with their U.S.
counterparts. It would seem from
some of the comments from Julien
and the directors present that formula
pricing would probably be dropped,
and the Board would actively pursue
other markets, both inside Canada
and the U.S. The Board has been
meeting with representatives from
packers in the U.S. over the summer
months, to re-establish relations with
these packers. Of course, countervail
will still reduce the returns received
from the U.S. market (the current
countervail rate is 1.34 cents per
pound liveweight or about $3.20 per
hog), but perhaps bidding would be
brisk enough to give us a positive
return by selling into this market. A
new packing plant is coming on
stream shortly in Indiana which will
increase competition in the U.S.
market.
The next couple of months should
show us how successful the negotiat-
ing committee will be, armed with
the facts contained in the Agrimetrics
report. Hopefully, it will go a long
way in bringing Ontario producers
parity with their American counter-
parts. The success of these negotiat-
ions could well mean the difference
between the Board being the main
marketer of hogs in Ontario, or a time
in which the Board will not be the do-
minant marketer and producers look
at other options to sell their hogs.°
Thank you to our
sponsors
The Perth County Pork Producers'
Association wishes to thank the
businesses that donated to our annual
Golf Tournament. We wish to thank
John Moore Insurance for the pork
burgers enjoyed at lunch, and Ken
Pal Farm Products and Perth County
Co-op for the excellent supper. We
would also like to thank our other
sponsors for supplying the door
prizes for the day. Thanks again.°
PERTH COUNTY
PORK PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage
• Pork Burgers • Bacon Burgers
• Boneless Rib 0' Pork
• Teriyaki Pork Steaks
• Bruce Packers Summer Sausage
• Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Fred de Martines (Sebr.) 393-6812
Dennis Zehr (Brun.) 595-4771
Martin van Bakel (Dublin) 347-2666
OCTOBER 1995 53