Farmscape for September 28, 2007  (Episode 2601)

A Saskatchewan pork producer believes China has the potential to become an important customer for Canadian pork.

Earlier this month a delegation of Canadian pork industry officials traveled to China for the World Pork Congress in Nanjing and to learn more about the Chinese market.

Humboldt area producer and Canadian Pork Council director Florian Possberg notes Chinese consumers are gaining in affluence.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Canadian Pork Council 

These people are going to consume more meat and pork is by far the largest segment of their meat industry in China so there's a great hunger for additional pork.

Now China currently has an ambition to produce all the pork that they need but space is limited in China and so is amount of fresh water and resources necessary to grow the feed to produce a lot more hogs.

We did some rough thumbnail sketch of how the industry will grow in China and some of the numbers we saw is that, in the next ten years, China will consume an extra 130 million hogs per year and it's doubtful whether they can produce that much more pork in an already concentrated industry in China.

That's obviously a great opportunity for the rest of the world and we believe Canada can be a significant part of supplying that extra pork meat to Chinese consumers.

Possberg observes China is evolving as an economic powerhouse and he predicts China will to be a major influence in global markets for a long time to come.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council