Pig farmers are calling on the authorities to do more to counter the labor shortage in the pig industry, which is already heavily impacted by inflation.

The organization Éleveurs de porcs du Québec took the opportunity of a corporate meeting in Drummondville on Thursday to call on the provincial and federal governments to kick in the anthill.

The breeders are calling for an extension of the increase in the limit for temporary foreign workers (TFW) to 30% for the year 2023 and an acceleration of the processing of files.

Due to a lack of employees in the processing plants, hog slaughter capacities in Quebec have been reduced, pushing breeders to carry out processing outside Quebec by implementing a balanced production management mechanism.

The inflationary context of the markets and the scarcity of labor will not fail to exert the situation of the pig breeders, while the exports of the pork sector fell by $222 million.

“The sustainability of Quebec pork businesses is shaken. You need electroshock. When the processing sector suffers, breeders are more tested,” lamented in a press release David Duval, president of the Éleveurs de porcs du Québec.

“It's a whole game of dominoes that ensues and it is the family breeding businesses that are still taking the hit. They who are already tested by staggering increases in production costs for food and energy in particular, ”he added.