ALMA Marketing Report –
This Little Piggy Needs a Market
Alberta and Canadian producers need to raise the bar rather than continuing in their current approach to marketing, says the director of the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency.
Canada is not the same as the United States and therefore should not be marketing pork under the same concepts, Ted Bilyea told producers and industry representatives at the Alberta Pork AGM in Calgary on Nov. 14.
Canadian producers and packers have the ability to differentiate their product, and then pursue both domestic and offshore markets based on those differences, said Bilyea. He pointed to factors including the high health of Canadian herds and the high standards for food safety that exist here as factors that could be used to raise both the demand and price of Canadian pork, locally and internationally.
Bilyea said he finds it "completely insane" that Canadian pork producers are in a trade deficit with the US.
"In my lifetime, I've never seen that before. We should not be in a total trade deficit with the US on pork. It wasn't very long ago that the US was, itself, a trade deficit country on pork. Certainly, into the late 90s, the US imported more pork than it exported."
That situation has changed around since then, which is remarkably important for Canada, he said.
"We've had more decline than the US in our consumption of pork. We are becoming even more export dependent."
Canada now exports more than 60 per cent of its pork, compared to about 20 per cent in the US, said Bilyea.
"So we are not the same country."
He believes Canada's best shot at improving its own industry is to find niches in foreign markets and to work with retailers and consumers to demonstrate the value of Canadian pork at home.
Some interesting ideas for implementing those theories came out of a pork marketing round table held in the spring and a survey of three major grocery retailers in Canada, he said.
The outcome of those activities is a realization that Canadian producers need to shed their current mode of thinking and start capitalizing on the factors that make their product unique.
"If you want to compete and win the game, you raise the bar. Sure, it's going to cost you money, but who cares? The market is going to pay for it, ultimately.
"This is a country that cannot win the game by going to the least common denominator, because the rest of the world exists because they have to float this industry on antibiotics. You couldn't even being to exist in China, if you have half the pigs in the world, if you didn't lace them with antibiotics," he said.
Bilyea pointed to the use of ractopamine as a factor in consumer choices, stating that Asian consumers within Canada are not interested in purchasing meat from animals that are finished on the hormone.
He showed a package of meat from a Vancouver market, pointing to the three selling points listed on its label. Topping the list was a statement that the meat was raised without ractopamine. In addition, is that the animals were fed an all-vegetable and grain diet and that the product met Canadian Quality Assurance (CQA) standards.
"Why do you think they're interested in that in Canada? Because they watch satellite TV from home . . . from China, from Japan, from Korea, and they see all these food scandals on TV."
Bilyea said Canadian producers need a better grasp of the market that exists among Asian communities in Canada.
"East Asian, that's your growth market for pork," he said.
Authenticity and transparency are key factors in marketing to Asian consumers. Get those factors right and you can raise the price, he said.
Against that backdrop, Bilyea said Canadian pork producers have a great story to tell, but it's not getting out.
He urged Canadian farmers and packers to work with retailers to promote and capitalize on the factors that set their product apart from the pork that is being produced in the rest of the world, including the US and China.
"The Canadian pork industry will suffer and shrink unless it is commonly regarded as better than the US and can attract a premium to the US," said Bilyea.
Putting on a sticker that identifies Canadian pork isn't enough. It must be identifiably different than the pork that is coming from the US, he said.
"Canadian-owned supermarkets need a Canadian pork industry. They simply lack the buying power in the US of their American retail competitors. They need us just as much as we need them."
That need is the card leaders in Alberta Pork will be able to play in their efforts to bring retailers to the table in the future.
"I'd like to see you, as an industry, say, 'I'd like to raise the bar rather than lowering it."
Bilyea advised players in the Canadian pork industry to take a page from hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky's book; "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is." •
— By Brenda Kossowan