Mandatory COOL Threatens Canada U.S. Partnerships in Pork(BEEF, Lamb, Goat, Produce, Poultry) Production
Karl Kynoch - Manitoba Pork Council
Farmscape for January 25, 2008 (Episode 2727)
Manitoba Pork Council is urging the U.S. government to allow a phase in period to give producers, processors and retailers the opportunity to adjust to Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling.
Under Mandatory U.S. Country of Origin Labelling legislation, scheduled to come into effect in September, fresh pork will have to be labelled according to the country in which it was born, raised and slaughtered.
Manitoba Pork Council Chair Karl Kynoch, in Des Moines, Iowa as part of a delegation attending the Iowa Pork Congress, reports Iowa producers are being told by some of the packers that, once the new labeling provisions take effect, they will stop buying pigs originating in Canada.
Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council
Manitoba has proven out to be very good at raising baby pigs and running sow operations.
In Iowa here we actually ship over two million head out of Manitoba of baby pigs and isoweans.
What has worked out well is that you bring those baby pigs here, put them right here in the centre of the corn belt and you have access to a lot of packers so it has worked very well to create these type of partnerships.
What's happened here now is some of the packers have started telling their producers that come September they are not going to continue to buy Canadian origin pigs.
We've been pushing for, that come September 08, that they have to allow a phase in period.
[b]For example they need to maybe take two years to phase this thing in and allow the packers and the producers and the retailers to figure out a way to make this thing work. (EVERYONE KNEW in 2002 when BUSH signed the COOL law and the RULES have been posted)[/b]
Hopefully we can see some pushback on the implementation lines and that will allow the producers to continue on doing business because there's a lot of uncertainty there right now on whether they should be breeding the sows because, if they breed them, will the packers buy them come September.
Kynoch notes some of the sows are already pregnant with pigs that will be born and scheduled for shipment south after the September 30 change so there is a lot that needs to be worked out quickly.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.