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By Alice McFarlane

Pork processing keeping up with demand

May 1, 2020 | 12:17 PM

Western Canada’s pork processing plants have done an effective job in coping with the disruptions resulting from the pandemic.

Saskatchewan Pork Development Board General Manager Mark Ferguson said processing plant closures in the United States due to COVID-19 have backed up the supply of live hogs.

He said plants in western Canada have implemented social distancing, added dividers, increased space between workers and even added extra shifts to protect their employees.

“Any processing reductions are usually a temporary measure for a couple of weeks until the workforce has recovered, and they’ve isolated the workers that may have been sick,” Ferguson said. “You’re looking at a couple of weeks, best case scenario, and the thing is we can probably hold hogs in barns for one to two weeks without too many issues.”

Ferguson said the real concern is if you get multiple plants going down at the same time or for longer than two weeks.

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“The other thing we worry about are the feeder pigs going to the U.S.,” he said. “If the producers that finish hogs are not able to empty out their barns and get those hogs to processing plants, they’re not going to be able to fill them up with new weanling pigs which could cause some problems with feeder pig exporters.”

Ferguson said to date everything is moving normally but it is something to watch.

The disruptions have caused live hog prices in North America to crash. Ferguson said most of the impact has been on the price side.

“The oversupply of hogs due to disruptions in the U.S. has caused prices to go down, current cash prices and also futures prices,” he said. “Although we’ve seen some recovery in the past week or so, the losses are still great and it’s a real issue facing farms today.”

Ferguson said western Canadian plants are processing normal amounts and unless things change dramatically, he doesn’t foresee any shortages of pork in Canadian stores.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF