The chair of Manitoba Pork Council applauds the federal government for its efforts in reaching a free trade agreement with South Korea.
Last week the governments of Canada and South Korea concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement that, over time, will virtually eliminate tariffs on Canadian pork entering that market and level the playing field for Canadian exporters.
Manitoba Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch says, for a province like Manitoba that depends on exports, having access to as many markets as possible is critical.
In Manitoba we export a lot of the product we produce.
In fact we export about 85 percent of the product that we produce and with having Maple Leaf’s state of the art plant here and also the Hylife plant in Neepawa we have a lot of pork product being produced here and that all needs a market.
When you’re relying on 85 percent of your product to be exported you need every market possible out there.
A lot of times in these Asian countries we will be exporting other products of the pig that we do not use here in Manitoba.
We do have all the parts go to the different Asian countries but one thing that the Asian countries do use is some of what we call the offal and that could be intestines, stomachs, feet, noses, heads.
Basically the Asian markets use everything but the squeal is what we always say.
Having markets for each one of the products that comes out of a pig just simply increases the value of the pig that the packers can receive for it after they cut it all up into parts and send it different directions.
As long as the packers can get value for every part of the pig then hopefully that will turn into more dollars coming back to the producer.
Kynoch applauds the federal government for its efforts in reaching two key free trade agreements, first with the European Union and now with South Korea.
He’s confident this deal will help the Canadian pork industry regain lost market share in South Korea and hopefully even increase that share.
