The of again on again off again strike and walkout on the west coast upended operations at Vancouver and Prince Rupert, two of Canada’s three busiest ports, which are critical gateways for exporting natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials.
Bill Alford, general manager of Hams Marketing Services in Winnipeg, MB, said the strike had not affected hog prices initially. For one, the base price for Western Canadian hogs with the Packers has a U.S. reference with no impact. It’s a double-edged sword because, for years, the hog producers in W. Canada have wanted Canadian-made pricing. Still, for now, things have remained stable for pricing.
Seasonally with the heat on the prairies, hogs grew slowly, so there is a manageable supply at this time of year. It’ll be much different when hogs grow quicker and more available in the fall.
And with the constraint on cold storage right now with this port strike, the processors are doing what they can to find alternate routes to get their pork to their customers, maybe west to east in some cases. And Maple Leaf is a huge national company with a good reach.
The other concern is the chilled pork that typically goes to Japan from the West Coast. And if it’s got to go the other way, it will undoubtedly be more expensive, but there’s only so much capacity and by all accounts filled up fast.
Alford said during this strike, and it had yet to reach the point where the Packers had to slash or cut back production schedules that would ultimately impact the farmers—still waiting!
With $730 million worth of pork that moves through the west coast ports annually, things can back up quickly. Chilled pork goes to Japan and ultimately needs freezing, so the clock was ticking.
“It’s fresh, chilled meat, and when you have to freeze it, that’s a lower price that would hurt the pocketbook of the processors.”
Alford said he started in the pork industry in the late ‘90s. To come up with that technology to get it nicely chilled and over to Japan and on the shelf and never been frozen, and it’s 30 days of shelf life.
Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) and Manitoba Pork called for an immediate end to supply chain disruptions in Canada’s West Coast ports.
“The current strike has impacted agri-food goods that rely on container shipping, such as pulses and livestock produced here in Manitoba, to reach destinations across the globe, and employees responsible for ensuring the transportation of these products should be keeping our supply chain flowing while negotiations are ongoing,” said KAP President, Jill Verwey.
As mentioned, the work stoppage put Manitoba’s hog sector at risk during this labour stoppage and the days leading up to it, given the magnitude of Manitoba pork exports that travel through the Port of Vancouver.
Manitoba Pork chair Rick Préjet said Manitoba exports about $730,000,000 worth of pork to Asia yearly out of West Coast ports.
“Some of our most valuable exports are chilled pork moving into premium markets like Japan,” said Préjet.
There can be no delay in shipping chilled pork in getting to market. Not only does this labour disruption put current sales at risk, but recurring port shutdowns also harm Canada’s long-term reputation as a reliable supplier.
KAP general manager Brenna Mahoney, the Canadian supply chain and reputation of the reliability of Canadian products abroad run the risk of significant damage in international markets.
“We urge the federal government to take more swift and decisive actions in the future to mitigate disruptions in Canada’s supply chain and impacts on our international reputation as a reliable producer of high quality, safe agricultural products,” said Mahoney. •
— By Harry Siemens