Canada Pork International says pork processors capable of delivering the right quality and the right specifications into the right markets at the right value can capture substantial premiums.
“Adding Value, Growth and Differentiation to a Commodity Driven Category” was discussed yesterday as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2012 in Saskatoon.
Michael Young, the vice president technical programs and marketing services with Canada Pork International, says Canada sells pork to over 100 countries but the vast majority go to top ten countries so part of the strategy now is to improve the value return for the meat that’s going there now which requires ongoing market development.
The Canadian pork industry is export dependant.
64 percent of our Canadian pork is exported around the world.
We are in some of the most lucrative and premium markets.
For instance, Japan is our second largest market, second largest market by volume but highest market by value.
This is a very competitive market.
As the years go by we focused more of our efforts in getting a larger share of the table meat market which is chilled.
To produce chilled meat at one part of the world and then provide it to another in pristine condition is quite an undertaking.
That’s one of the reasons why not all of our competitors can do it.
There’s a short list of countries that we compete against.
Our main competitor is the U.S. in Japan.
We have about 25 percent of the chilled meat market there and our goal is to capture a larger share of that pie.
Young recalls a marketing audit a few years back that looked at basic returns for a hog carcass in Canada and the U.S. compared to returns in the premium export markets showed there was a 19 to 23 dollar a head premium potential for a meat packer able to create the best quality, get the right specification and be in the right market for the right value.
