The Canadian Pork Council is welcoming new federal investments to give Canada’s pork industry a competitive edge.
Last week federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced funding for the creation of a swine research cluster which will bring together industry, government and scientists to address pork industry research priorities including food safety, meat quality and feed input issues, for strengthening the Canadian swine traceability system, for international market development and promotion and for the development of methods to predict marbling in hogs and to promote marbling in pork.
Canadian Pork Council president Jurgen Preugschas says these initiatives will serve to strengthen the industry by improving our competitiveness and further differentiating our products for both domestic and international customers.
I think the significance of this is that it’s all part of a package.
It’s a package to take a look at how to restructure and rebuild our industry and reinvigorate the industry.
These are all building blocks in that process and all of them are a small part of building that foundation so that we can be sustainable in the long term.
Although we’re back in the black right now, we have to remember that after nearly four years of sustained severe losses two weeks of profits doesn’t turn things around.
All be it it looks better, there’s more smiles on producers’ faces but we’ve got a long way to go yet and that’s why some of these initiatives are really key in terms of building that foundation that we don’t go what we’ve gone through in the last four years in the future.
Preugschas says Canada’s pork industry needs to be on the leading edge and these initiatives will help keep producers on the leading edge and competitive in the future.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
