By Tom Johnston on 5/14/2008 for Meatingplace.com
While Canada's pork industry struggles to sustain itself amid rising feed costs, shrinking inventory, declining hog slaughter and fleeing producers, the country's strong currency is resulting, ironically, in increased imports of pork from the United States.
According to a report by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. pork sales to Canada rose 20 percent to 164,334 metric tons in 2007, compared with 137,302 metric tons in 2006. Most of the load consisted of fresh or chilled pork cuts, including back ribs and U.S. prepared pork including pre-packaged sausages.
Demand for U.S. pork in Canada is expected to increase in 2008, reflecting the forecast for lower Canadian pork production and a continued strong Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar. Over the January to February period, U.S. pork was up 40 percent over the same period a year ago.
Times are so tough in Canada that its hog farmers are fleeing the industry "at an unprecedented rate," the report said. According to Statistics Canada, the total number of Canadian hog farms on April 1, 2008, fell to 8,820 farms, down 19.3 percent from the level one year earlier.
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