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Olymel to idle multiple Prairie hog barns

Packer cites 'continued financial losses' in sector

Pork packer Olymel is preparing to dial back its hog production in Western Canada by shuttering six of its sow units in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Olymel, the agrifood arm of Quebec’s Sollio Cooperative Group, announced Friday it has served 80 employees with layoff notices at five sow units in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. The […] Read more

Piglets at a hog operation in China. (KuLouKu/iStock/Getty Images)

China’s 2022 pork output highest in eight years

Average hog weights remain relatively high

Reuters — China’s pork output increased 4.6 per cent in 2022 from 2021 to reach its highest level since 2014, official data showed on Tuesday, confounding some expectations for a smaller rise. Pork output in the world’s top producer of the meat reached 55.41 million tonnes, the highest since 56.71 million tonnes recorded eight years […] Read more


Lethbridge hog farmer Stan Vanessen said higher pork prices mean he is making money now but the margins are slim and many producers “don’t see a future for the industry.”

Pork industry sees uptick despite skyrocketing input costs

While returns have improved, the sector has lost about 40 per cent of its farms in the last decade

Reading Time: 4 minutes Hog farming has been a tough slog for years, but matters have improved slightly since the beginning of the pandemic, says the executive director of Alberta Pork. Unfortunately, soaring input costs are running in parallel with higher hog prices, and the industry remains in decline, said Darcy Fitzgerald. There are now an estimated 300 commercial […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Maple Leaf to buy four Saskatchewan hog barns

Pork processor plans future upgrades

Two sow barns and two nursery hog barns in central Saskatchewan are set to become the property of meat processor Maple Leaf Foods. Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Wednesday it plans to buy the four barns from Polar Pork, a group of farms spearheaded by members of the Possberg family — well known as the founding […] Read more


This image accompanied the latest cost-of-production study from Alberta Pork. In fact, losses have averaged about $6 per head for the last five years, says the general manager of Western Hog Exchange.

Pork producers eye an average year — which would mean more losses

Barns are already being shut down, and this exodus will accelerate, says industry veteran

Reading Time: 3 minutes The past year hammered the already struggling hog industry — but is there hope on the horizon for 2021? “I don’t want to be doom and gloom, but I have to say no,” said Brent Bushell, general manager of Western Hog Exchange. “In Western Canada, on average, producers haven’t made money since about 2015. Guys […] Read more

F. Menard’s retail butcher shop at Ange-Gardien underwent a major renovation in July 2018. (FMenard.com)

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


(HylifeFoods.com)

HyLife co-founder Paul Vielfaure, 59

Funeral arrangements are pending for one of the founding brothers behind Prairie hog production and pork processing firm HyLife. Paul Vielfaure died suddenly Nov. 23 at age 59, his family reported in a brief obituary in Winnipeg and Steinbach newspapers this week. Radio-Canada reported Tuesday that Vielfaure had died in Phoenix, Arizona. While Vielfaure was […] Read more