national
farmers union
national
farmers union
SASKATOON, Sask.-"There are two key costs at a pork-packing plant: pigs and labour. Maple Leaf and Fletcher's, two of Canada's largest packers, have forced 40% wage cuts on their workers. At the same time, the farmgate price of pigs has fallen over 60%. Packing-plant profits must be huge," said NFU President Nettie Wiebe.
The graph below demonstrates that November 1998 hog prices are half what they were 20 years ago. Retail pork prices, however, have more than doubled.
Farmgate hog and retail pork prices: 1976-98
Source: Stats. Can. pub.# 23-603 and 62-010 (Some 1998 prices from Western Producer and Alta. Agriculture).
"Farmers are forced by huge retail and meat-packing corporations to accept an ever-shrinking portion of the consumers" grocery-store dollar. This reality is a major factor in the current farm-income crisis," said Wiebe.
The NFU calculates that if the farmer's share of the grocery-store dollar had remained constant, farmers would now be receiving $1.20/lb for hogs (not 35¢) or pork chops would now cost just $1.25/lb in the store (not $4.00). "Every Canadian consumer should ask at the meat counter why retail pork prices remain so high," urged Wiebe.
"The failure of the current marketing system to return a fair and reasonable price to farmers should cause us to re-evaluate that system. A system which constantly raises retail prices and, concurrently, forces farmers into bankruptcy is clearly defective. Farmers, consumers, and government officials should work together to help remedy inefficiencies and/or inappropriate profit-taking in the packing and retailing sectors," concluded Wiebe.
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