The University of Saskatchewan’s vaccine research and development arm is set to become Canada’s first non-government agency to work with the African swine fever virus. Saskatoon-based Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) will start work with the virus this month at its Containment Level 3-Agriculture (CL3-Ag) facility, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said […] Read more
VIDO-InterVac joins swine fever fight
African swine fever spreads near German border
Paris | Reuters — Poland recorded 55 outbreaks of African swine fever in wild boar near the German border last month, the world animal health body said on Thursday, in a sign the deadly virus is spreading near one of the European Union’s biggest pork exporters. A report posted on the World Organization for Animal […] Read more
Amended CUSMA pact includes anti-COOL clause
The new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), a free trade deal set to replace NAFTA, includes language meant to block any future bids at a trade-disrupting country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. The new clause would, in theory, checkmate a move made last summer by some Democrat members of the U.S. House of Representatives to have a new North […] Read more
Vietnam’s pork imports more than double amid swine fever outbreak
Hanoi | Reuters — Vietnam’s pork imports during the first 11 months of this year more than doubled to 110,000 tonnes, the ministry of finance said on Thursday, as the country’s pig herd has been battered by an outbreak of African swine fever. Since the disease was first detected in February, it has spread to […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Hog futures slip ahead of USDA report
Chicago | Reuters – U.S. hog futures eased back on Monday, ahead of a quarterly government report that is expected to show a healthy boost to the size of the U.S. hog herd, traders said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s quarterly Hogs and Pigs report is expected to show the herd increased 2.9 percent in […] Read more
Alberta Pork celebrates 50 years — and looks back at many, many changes
It’s almost easier to ask what hasn’t changed in the pork sector in the last half-century
Reading Time: 4 minutes The changes just keep on coming as the organization representing Alberta’s pork producers marks its 50th birthday. The industry has been transformed again and again since Alberta Pork was formed in 1969, said executive director Darcy Fitzgerald. The top one is the number of producers. “We used to have a lot of farms with few […] Read more
Maple Leaf lands ‘sustainability-linked’ credit
Canadian food processor Maple Leaf Foods is taking its recently-established sustainability cred to the bank. The Toronto food firm announced Wednesday it’s the first Canadian company to secure “sustainability-linked terms” for its credit facilities. Specifically, the company has picked up an unsecured committed revolving line of credit and two unsecured committed term facilities for a […] Read more
Strong foreign demand boosts North American hog markets
MarketsFarm — While the volume of hogs at North American slaughter markets have kept packing plants near capacity in recent weeks, strong foreign export demand has kept pork values high. “We expect pork values to move higher, due to the shortness of production in China,” said Brad Marceniuk, a Saskatchewan provincial livestock economist in Saskatoon. […] Read more
F. Menard’s pork industry assets cleared for sale
Antitrust regulators have cleared the path for La Coop federee to take up a significantly larger, vertically integrated share of its home province’s pork packing, feed milling and hog production sectors. The agribusiness co-operative announced Thursday its Olymel and Sollio Agriculture arms have “received the green light” from the federal Competition Bureau to buy the […] Read more
Brazil gets approval for 13 meatpacking plants for China exports
Sao Paulo | Brazil | Reuters – Chinese authorities approved new Brazilian meat exporting plants on Tuesday, according to the Brazilian agriculture ministry, a highly anticipated move as the two nations continue to strengthen trade ties. The approvals come as China seeks to increase meat imports to compensate for the death of around half of […] Read more
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