In the absence of a provincial hog stabilization program Manitoba Pork Council is advising pork producers to maintain close contact with their creditors and to discuss options with the Manitoba Pork Credit Corporation.
In an effort to help Manitoba’s pork producers cope with a range of economic challenges, Manitoba Pork Council had proposed an industry driven 75 million dollar provincial hog stabilization program under which pork producers would be able to access loans to help cover critical operating costs.
Last week the organization was informed the Manitoba Government will not provide the guarantee necessary to allow the program to move forward.
Manitoba Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch says what producers need right now is access to funds to bridge them to better times when they can actually turn some profits.
The biggest challenge facing producers today is cash flow, just access to cash to be able to pay the ongoing feed bills and the labor bills.
Basically what’s caused this is we’ve had a number of issues over the year, the Country of Origin Labelling, other challenges to the environment and just a whole host of challenges.
Low meat prices would be the other one, over the past five years.
There’s been a lot of losses over the past five years but the most recent challenge has been the high cost of feed.
With the drought that we faced this past year it’s more than doubled the price of feed.
Even though the hog prices aren’t that bad, with the high cost of feed, producers have continued to lose money over the past 12 months which has on top of everything else just added to those losses and they’re simply running out of dollars just to be able to pay the ongoing expenses.
Kynoch encourages producers to maintain open communications with their lenders and to contact the Manitoba Pork Credit Corporation to discuss options.
He notes there are programs available including the Advance Payments Program where producers are able to access cash based on their number of hogs, loans through the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation and loans through Farm Credit Canada.
