The general manager of h@ms reports the strong value of the Canadian dollar has limited the benefits of strengthening North American hog markets on the Canadian side of the border.
Effective January 1st h@ms or Hog Administrative Marketing Services, a joint venture of the SPI Marketing Group and Manitoba Pork Marketing, began offering procurement, settlement, in-transit insurance and risk management services on behalf of the two parent companies to Manitoba and Saskatchewan hog producers.
A series of meetings that began last month in Saskatchewan to update producers on the new structure and outline services concludes this week in Manitoba.
h@ms general manager Perry Mohr notes, while hog prices have been trending upward, the strength of the Canadian dollar has limited the benefits on the Canadian side of the border.
If we look solely at the U.S. hog market it is performing extremely well right now.
Sadly for those of us that are on this side of the 49th parallel our Canadian dollar strength has extinguished a lot of the strength of the U.S. hog market.
I know that, based on the offerings on our risk management program, producers can from April right through to the end of the year lock in profitable prices.
Would they be prices that would, obviously it would be better if our dollar was at 85 or 90 cents versus 97 or 98 cents but they are still very good considering what we’ve been through over the last three years.
They definitely represent a pretty good value relative to that.
I think on a go forward basis, if we could have our dollar lose some of its strength relative to the U.S. dollar, that would provide us with a little extra revenue and revenue that’s dearly needed.
The series of producers meetings wraps up with sessions today in Portage and tomorrow in Starbuck.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
