Spencer Long, Genesus Director of Marketing
The Canadian industry remains more of the same from the last time I wrote a report. Prices remain stubbornly low. The good news for many producers who also crop farm is harvest data across much of the country looks to be doing okay. Canada is projected to produce 34.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2024, up 4.1% from 2023. In 2024, Canadian farmers are projected to produce more wheat, oats, and soybeans but less canola, corn for grain, and barley compared to 2023. This somewhat positive news could be overshadowed by the issue at hand currently with Bill C-282 that is currently being studied by the Canadian Senate that would in essence protect Canada’s supply management in trade agreements with other countries. For the industries in Canada that are under supply management (dairy, poultry, and eggs), they naturally support this bill. The swine industry is not supply managed in Canada, and as such, the threat of this bill is real as Canada exports 70% of its pork. Bill C-282 would handcuff Canada’s international trade negotiators by forbidding them from even discussing Canada’s supply-managed industries in trade talks. The US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement is to be formally reviewed in 2026, and both U.S. presidential candidates clearly display levels of protectionism that will be used by either one while in the White House. That could be bad news for Canada and especially the swine industry if we refuse to negotiate trade agreements for all trade. The Canadian pork industry is reliant on foreign trade and trade agreements; something that could hinder this ability to trade could create absolute destruction for our already crippled industry.
Back in September, we attended and spoke at the Global Pig Genetic Summit (GPGS) in Hefei, China. It was a very well-run conference attended by the major swine genetic companies in the world. It was interesting to hear what many of them are working on and how they view the swine genetic business going forward. PIC spoke about the merits of gene editing in a talk that was supposed to be about consumer acceptance of it (barely anything was mentioned on consumer acceptance), and the brief message that was presented on gene editing was that consumers need to be educated on it or they won’t accept it. To all the retailers and packers out there, congratulations! You now get the opportunity to explain to consumers why gene-edited pork is good and won’t kill you. I’m sure you’re all racing to call PIC right now to thank them for this exciting new opportunity they are giving you to re-educate consumers on food safety. Maybe NPPC can run a campaign for PIC to re-educate consumers on why gene editing is so great, and you won’t die eating it because the last thing they would want to focus on is taste, you know, the number one factor in every consumer study on people’s purchasing decisions.
What was very interesting at the conference (although in no way surprising) was the complete lack of genetic companies presenting on the work done on meat quality and better tasting pork. There was a whole section of the conference dedicated to genetic companies presenting on the work they have done on meat quality (Genesus spoke on this and went into detail on what we do). Instead, the other genetic companies used their time using the word “meat quality” without discussing what they do on it. They wasted everyone’s time talking about totally irrelevant things that have nothing to do with meat quality. They didn’t want to talk about it because they aren’t doing it and they don’t have it. They don’t care. They still think the way forward in this industry is to make pork lean and in no way address the number one factor in consumers purchasing decisions – Taste. At Genesus we think and act differently and have and continue to work on producing pork that chases beef, not chicken. We’ve been working on this for over 25 years; it’s what we fundamentally believe in. We want to produce pork that is redder in color, more marbled, balanced pH, good water holding capacity, better texture and tenderness, great flavor, and juiciness. We will continue to do what we believe in and fight for the industry we love to be in. We are producing food for an end consumer, and when we hear so often from consumers that pork doesn’t taste like it used to (tasty red marbled pork), as an industry we should heed that message. It is baffling as an industry as we continually lose market share while overall total per capita meat consumption continues rising and our industry refuses to change and address what consumers demand the most – Taste.
Spencer Long speaking at the GPGS Conference in Hefei, China
Sources:
https://financialpost.com/opinion/dont-hold-economy-hostage-supply-management
https://www.world-grain.com/articles/20463-more-wheat-projected-for-canada-in-2024
