Agriculture and Forestry minister Eric Hammill says that market opportunities for high quality pork products combined with surplus capacity at Garden Province Meats create a positive opportunity for the expansion of the province's hog industry.
Speaking in the Legislature on Friday, Mr. Hammill said his department, in cooperation with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, have a three-part plan to support hog industry expansion, including the Garden Province Meats' loan program, multi-farm unit initiatives and development programming and extension support. He said the objective is to expand hog production by 30 percent.
"The expansion of the hog industry is an exciting opportunity for this province," said Mr. Hammill. "We have the capacity to produce and market high quality hogs for both the domestic and export markets."
Mr. Hammill said the GPM loan program has provided stable, low-cost financing for individual producers and has been a key element in achieving production increases over the past several years. He said the department will continue its support for the program through the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and GPM.
The minister said there is increasing interest in multi-farm integrated production units which have been successfully established in other hog producing areas. These involve central weaner pig production and distributed grow-out operations involving a number of producers.
"We have assigned a team from our department and Enterprise PEI to meet with any multi-farm group wishing to pursue this kind of initiative," said Mr. Hammill. "Depending on the size and scale of the business proposed, we will explore a variety of loan-financing options, including the Immigrant Investor Fund."
Mr. Hammill said the department has maintained its support to the industry through the Swine Quality Improvement Program, the contract with the Vet College for diagnostics and virology and extension support. Other programs such as Enhanced NISA and the Agriculture Disaster Insurance Program help support the financial stability of producers.
The hog industry had total farm cash receipts last year of more than $25 million.