Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Hog prices in North America typically come under pressure heading into fall, as the end of barbecue season coincides with more hogs coming to slaughter. However, strong global demand has propped up hog prices in recent weeks, with cash prices increasing by over 25 per cent. Fewer hogs coming to market, coupled with […] Read more
Strong demand, lower supplies support North American hog prices
Swine fever found in Germany putting pork exports at risk
Country had been fencing off borders against wild boar
Reading Time: 2 minutes Berlin/Hamburg | Reuters — Germany confirmed on Thursday that African swine fever (ASF) had been found in a dead wild boar near its border with Poland, threatening pork exports to China from Europe’s biggest pork producer, which were worth US$1.2 billion last year. Authorities in the German state of Brandenburg quarantined a 15-km area around […] Read more
Germany reports first suspected case of African swine fever
German producers currently exporting pork to China
Reading Time: 2 minutes Berlin | Reuters — Germany’s ministry of food and agriculture said on Wednesday it had a suspected case of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg. The suspected case concerned a wild boar carcass found near the German-Polish border. A sample of the carcass was being taken for […] Read more
Hog farmers face prolonged pain as pandemic gives way to glut
Canadian Pork Council takes new tack on AgriStability reform
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — North America’s hog farmers face prolonged pain beyond the COVID-19 pandemic that has interrupted packing plants , as a pig glut in the U.S. holds prices low and pressures producers to downsize. Many North American hogs had nowhere to go in spring as slaughter plants suspended production due to workers becoming […] Read more
Olymel’s Red Deer plant holds at one COVID case
Pork plant employee's contacts returning to work
Reading Time: 2 minutes A production line employee at Olymel’s hog slaughter plant at Red Deer, Alta. remains the facility’s lone COVID-19 case after her contacts at the plant tested negative for the virus, the company says. Olymel, the meat packing arm of Quebec ag co-operative Sollio, confirmed the lone COVID-19 case at its Red Deer site on Aug. […] Read more
Brandon pork plant’s exports to China suspended
Chinese protocols call for temporary pause, Maple Leaf says
Reading Time: 2 minutes New Chinese rules for exporters and a number of COVID-19 cases among its workers have led Maple Leaf Foods to temporarily halt pork traffic to China from its biggest hog plant. The company said Tuesday it has “temporarily suspended pork exports to China on a voluntary basis due to recent protocols adopted by the Chinese […] Read more
Red Deer hog plant books first COVID case
One employee confirmed with virus, 13 isolating as precaution, company says
Reading Time: 2 minutes A major Prairie hog slaughter and processing plant relatively untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic has marked its first case of the coronavirus in a production line worker. Olymel, the meat packing arm of Quebec ag co-operative Sollio, said an employee who reported for work Monday last week at its Red Deer, Alta. plant began showing […] Read more
JBS to resume U.S. share listing plan after COVID-19 fallout
Management looking also for US$100 million in cost cuts
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA is reviving plans to list shares on Wall Street after dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic’s fallout, CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said on Friday, as the world’s largest meatpacker reported strong quarterly results. Speaking on a conference call with analysts following the company’s second-quarter results, Tomazoni said the focus […] Read more
Union seeks temporary halt for major Manitoba hog plant
Four Maple Leaf plant staff now COVID-positive
Reading Time: 2 minutes The union for about 2,000 workers at Maple Leaf Foods’ main Canadian hog slaughter and packing plant is calling for the company to put the brakes on production, pending further tests for COVID-19 among employees. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832 said Thursday it was “made aware” late Wednesday night of three more […] Read more
COVID-19 case confirmed at Maple Leaf hog plant
Reading Time: < 1 minute A worker at Maple Leaf Foods’ hog slaughter and processing plant at Brandon, Man. is recovering at home after testing positive for COVID-19, the Manitoba Co-operator has reported. The company said it received word over the long weekend about the case. Citing its own review of the situation and consultation with public health officials, the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
