Producers respond to pork board changes
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Elmer Buchanan delivered the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission's decision about Ontario Pork on Monday in Guelph.
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
As of yesterday, Oct. 7, Ontario Pork no longer has oversight over all contracted hog sales signed between producers and processors.
That was the first step in dismantling Ontario Pork’s single desk selling system, which has existed in various forms since the late 1950s.
The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission expects other steps will take place by April, according to a ruling handed down yesterday. On the chopping block are Ontario Pork’s authority to have a mandatory role in: logistics and scheduling delivery of hogs to processors, the settlement of payment between processors and producers, and receipt and dissemination of sales and marketing data.
To producers who want it, Ontario Pork will still offer sales and marketing services such as contract negotiation, scheduling, logistics and settlement.
The role that Ontario Pork will play in serving the interests of the Ontario industry is still up in the air. There are questions that need to be answered. One of those is whether the number of Quebec hogs coming into Ontario plants will still be counted and reported. Mary Jane Quinn, spokesperson for Ontario Pork, says this is currently being done by the Ontario Pork Grading Authority. No one was available from the Authority to comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Commission acting chair Elmer Buchanan released the decision to about 40 industry stakeholders at the Holiday Inn in Guelph Monday afternoon, then held a press conference at 2:15 for reporters.
Ontario Pork representatives had left. A group of pork dissidents stayed to meet and share a celebratory drink.
“We are pleased with the commission’s decision,” said producer Bob Hunsberger, president of 3-P Conestoga Meat Packers cooperative. Hunsberger looks forward to the cooperative handling its own logistics and settlement. The cooperative has long lobbied to get an exemption from service fees that Hunsberger says didn’t offer them “value.”
“It’s the beginning of a better future for producers in Ontario,” said Brian Simpson, spokesman for the Open Marketing Group. “It’s taken the handcuffs off.”
Ontario Pork wasn’t marketing pigs, Simpson said. “They were selling. They were allotting.”
“They were price takers,” Simpson said.
Not all producers are as happy. During the hearings, Ottawa producer Bruce Hudson spoke on behalf of producers in eastern Ontario and urged the commission to let Ontario Pork keep its powers. Hudson told Better Farming Ontario Pork treated producers the same “whether you lived in Casselman or in Harrow.” He asserts that deregulation “pits farmer against farmer. The big guy against the smaller guys.” He thinks Maple Leaf Pork and Quality Meat Packers will benefit.
“I believe Ontario Pork will come out of this in a much stronger position,” said chairman Curtiss Littlejohn. The Commission extended the marketing board’s authority to collect fees on the sale of all pigs in the province of Ontario. Previously, sales of pigs other than for slaughter were exempt. “They have stated they clearly want Ontario Pork to maintain its current sales, logistics and marketing functions for producers who choose to take that route. And they have asked us very clearly to make sure that we represent the industry politically and in terms of in terms of issues such as foreign animal disease, Canadian Quality Assurance, traceability, and all those sorts of things.”
Littlejohn said the changes are in line with the strategic plan that Ontario Pork has been developing. However, he did not rule out a pork board appeal of the Commission’s ruling.
“We need to meet with the commission on Thursday to get some more questions answered,” Littlejohn told Better Farming. The pork board’s legal counsel will review the changes to regulations and the timelines for implementation that the commission has set down.
There is a lot of work ahead for Ontario Pork if it is to prepare and present an implementation plan by the commission’s Jan. 15 deadline. First, Ontario Pork must present a new governance plan and get approval from regional delegates on Nov. 19.
Acting commission chairman Elmer Buchanan said changes will be phased in after working through a “reinvigorated Hog Industry Advisory Committee.” Buchanan doesn’t know when this committee last held a meaningful meeting. It was chaired by recently retired commission chair David Hope.
Littlejohn said it is “too early in the process to start thinking about which producers will be happy or unhappy with what the commission has brought forward.”
Simpson said it will be very important to find a balance of representatives on the committee. “I think we can do it rapidly if there is good will and good intentions.”
If Ontario Pork appeals the commission’s decision “it will be disappointing for the industry and shortsighted and will continue to harm the industry,” he said.
“We are very hopeful everyone will roll up their sleeves and get to work.”
Speaking to reporters, Buchanan said opposition to Ontario Pork’s legislated monopoly powers came from a “substantial part” of the industry as represented by hog numbers. He said the issue of support or non-support for Ontario Pork was not a simple issue of big versus little producers but did not elaborate further.
“What was in place was not working. There were a lot of places in the chain that had a lot of friction between the players.”
“We heard over and over again” that the current friction in the industry made it difficult to find investors in Maple Leaf Foods Burlington plant, which is up for sale. He described the Maple Leaf situation as a “backdrop” but not the reason for the devolution of powers.
Buchanan said a goal will be “to put a committee in place that will not be an adversarial relationship.” Ontario Pork has to bring most of the information forward to make this work.
“It is not our role. The solution has to come from the players, not from us.” BF