The Canadian Pork Council is confident most Canadian pork producers will be eligible for loans being made available under a new restructuring plan being offered by the federal government for the Canadian pork industry.
Last week Ottawa unveiled details of a comprehensive restructuring plan for Canadian pork producers originally announced in August.
The plan includes funding for domestic and international pork promotion, a loan program to allow producers to restructure outstanding debt and a program under which struggling producers will be able to exit the industry.
CPC public relations manager Gary Stordy notes information on the package is available through the Canadian Pork Council web site and the provincial organizations are also expected make details available to their producers.
There’s two main programs that are being offered to producers.
Right now there’s the loan program that will essentially allow producers to deal with their liquidity crisis on the farm and we do believe that a majority of the producers will be eligible for that program.
Unfortunately there’s going to be some producers that are just not going to be able to accommodate additional debt and may not be eligible for this loan.
That’s where the Hog Farm Transition Program should come into play.
It’s essentially a tender process where a producer will send a tender in for what they may require to set aside production for three years.
The intent of that is to capture producers who may not have been eligible for a loan and allow them to apply for this transition program, receive some funding underneath the program and at least readjust their production to perhaps return to the industry in three years.
Application forms for the loan program were made available beginning yesterday and application forms for the Hog Farm Transition Program will be available beginning October 8th.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
