Better Pork February 2017

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Better Pork February 2017 15
EXPORT MARKETS
million worth of hogs to the U.S.,
where over 97 per cent of Canadian
hogs are destined,” says Savaryn-Roy.
The numbers tell a different story
for pork products. “Canadian exports
of meat (go) to more diverse destina-
tions,” she adds. In 2015, “just over 50
per cent of exports headed to the U.S.,
16 per cent to Japan, 10 per cent to
China, 6 per cent to Mexico and 3 per
cent to South Korea.”
Manitoba had a 23.2 per cent share
of Canada’s exported pork by value in
2015, Andrew Dickson, general
manager of Manitoba Pork, notes.
“Seven years ago, (Manitoba)
would have shipped 57 per cent of
our live hogs to the U.S. Now it’s
around 45 per cent,” he says. “In 2008,
we shipped 2.8 per cent of pork to
Mexico. Now it’s around 7.7 per cent.
We used to ship 0.4 per cent to China.
Now we ship around 5 per cent.
“Canada has established itself as a
reliable supplier. The trend is for less
and less dependency on the United
States and more growth in other
markets. (In) Japan and China, for ex-
ample, demand is growing,” Dickson
says.
Japan is a unique market for
Canada. “We don’t have the same
volume of exports (to Japan as to
other markets),” says Stordy. “Howev-
er, because of the customer’s high
standards and demands for quality,
we are able to get a better return on
that product.”
Dickson also notes the significance
of Japan as an importer of Canadian
pork.
“Japan’s consumers prize quality
and consistency. They like our pork’s
meat and fat ratio,” says Dickson. “We
design these pigs to meet those
requirements with feed. For example,
we can feed barley because it gives the
pigs a harder white fat, as opposed to
the yellow soft fat that feeding corn
can give.”
The fact that Japan imports
Canadian pork shows that the
product is regarded as one of the best
in the international marketplace, says
Dickson. “Japan can buy worldwide,
and (it) choose(s) to buy our product.
We look at each of these markets and
see what they require,” he says.
Japan is one of the main targets of
exporter HyLife Ltd., says Claude
Vielfaure, president of the company.
“The (Japanese) are connoisseurs of
pork meat. They want high quality
and high profile tastes. They are
certainly wanting to pay for that.”
China also greatly influenced
Canada’s pork exports in 2016, says
Ron Davidson, director of interna-
tional trade, government and media
relations at the Canadian Meat
Council. This influence is a result of
China substantially increasing its
imports.
China’s middle class and standard
of living is increasing, so people are
choosing to eat more meat products,
says Dickson. The country likes
Canadian pork’s high quality and
Chinese consumers are now willing
to pay more for the meat.
“There are cuts of meat that the