International Trade committee  Good afternoon. My name is Hans Kristensen. I'm a producer from New Brunswick and am the Maritimes representative on the Canadian Pork Council board of directors. I'd first like to thank the members of the committee for the invitation to appear before you this afternoon. The hog industry is extremely important to the Canadian economy, contributing 103,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.

Agriculture committee  Right now, we have AgriInsurance for crops. If there's a catastrophic event in a cropping scenario, the farmer has insurance to cover those production losses. We do not have that in the livestock sector. If we had production insurance the same way we have crop insurance, that would lend stability to our industry.

Agriculture committee  Okay.

Agriculture committee  It's twofold. First, there is the perceived economic instability of our particular sector, especially if you're looking at it from an historical viewpoint. That's been a challenge. There's a difficulty in accepting what we call the new reality with export markets and a growing world protein consumption that's going to benefit our industry going forward.

Agriculture committee  I think there is a place in Atlantic Canada for, I'm going to say, small-scale processing facilities that serve a local market. I'll probably get shot for saying this when I get back home, but I don't think it's realistic that we would have a viable, federally inspected commercial processing facility with the livestock base that we have.

Agriculture committee  Another aspect of that, too, is sometimes just putting the right players together. There are investors in production and export facilities in B.C. who would benefit from partnerships with the hog producers in the prairie provinces that want to expand. Sometimes, too, it's just an innovative pairing of people, but I absolutely think that British Columbia can certainly get back into this industry, because a lot of our exports are going to the Pacific Rim.

Agriculture committee  I'm encouraged by that amount of money and that funding, as well. I know that the hog industry is very innovative. We're very quick to adapt new technologies. We're hoping to access part of those funds. Our biggest challenge right now is that since 2005 there has been very little capital reinvestment in our industry.

Agriculture committee  Again, it goes to confidence in our industry. It's difficult to attract new entrants to our industry due to the historical instability, even though lately it has been very good. It's difficult to attract new entrants to our industry with, again, financial institutions being a little bit more nervous about our industry than they are about, say, the dairy industry.

Agriculture committee  In relation to Atlantic Canada or in relation to the country as a whole?

Agriculture committee  When it comes to the CALA program, one of the biggest disadvantages we have is the limitations on the amount of borrowing. So an individual producer today can only access that program, I believe, to the tune of $500,000. We operate in a very capital intensive industry. Unlike a lot of other agricultural operations, we are not land based.

Agriculture committee  Anything we can do that allows a farm to transition from one generation to the next and stay within the family is beneficial to our industry. As our farm families shrink, as indeed families in general shrink in this country, we need to expand the definition of family to include other relatives other than direct descendants.

Agriculture committee  While it's true we have emerging markets, and wonderful opportunities continue in Japan and China, we do need to invest in our industry. Our problem right now will be access to capital. Because of the economic troubles of our industry from 2005 to 2010, a lot of our producers had to borrow more money, were very highly leveraged, and it was a very difficult time for our industry.

Agriculture committee  Hedging is a very useful tool for producers. Unfortunately, unless there's a program in place to help us offset the cost, it comes with the risk of rising prices for producers in the ensuing cash calls that can be had on the market. Therefore, we can be in a position where we would hedge 75% of our production, yet prices continue to appreciate.

Agriculture committee  We're talking about some type of hedging insurance program that would help offset the need of that protection against rising market prices.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, good morning. My name is Hans Kristensen. I am a pork producer from New Brunswick and the Maritime representative of the Canadian Pork Council's board of directors. I would first like to thank the members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for the invitation to appear before you again this morning, this time to discuss debt and its effects in the agriculture sector.