The Chair of the Canadian Pork Council says one of the organization’s top priorities is working with government to make AgriStability more responsive to the needs of pork producers.
The Canadian Pork Council, a national organization that represents the interests Canada’s pork producers, celebrates its 50 anniversary in 2016.
CPC Chair Rick Bergmann told those attending the 45th Banff Pork Seminar last week, among the organization’s top priorities during 2016 will be negotiating improvements to business risk management programs under Growing Forward 2.
One of the significant areas of our industry right now is ensuring that we’ve got sustainability in the future. It’s a cyclical market place that we live in. We know, for example, AgriStability has been a significant help for us in previous years. We also fully realize that that program has changed, not for the better.
We have opportunity now to pursue fixing something that is broke for our producers and we sure hope that we’re successful at that. Our plans in the near future are to collaborate with our Minister of Agriculture. We have had several meetings with him since he’s been in his position. We look forward to more collaboration with him on that.
Primarily the ratios and how the program is triggered is a concern for us right now because, if we were to go into some very difficult times, the program would not show value for our producers and that’s a concern for us.
Bergmann says its important to ensure the momentum that is started, the huge economic engine the pork industry provides for Canada continues to grow.
He says a strong business risk management program is critical to protect producers in the cyclical times in which we live.
