Unites States-Country of Origin labelling.

UNITED STATES- Country-of-origin labeling—COOL—is hurting not only Canadian pork producers, but Midwestern U.S. producers as well. That’s according to Karl Kynoch, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council.

Weanling pigs from Manitoba are shipped to Iowa and other Midwestern states for finishing. Now, because of COOL, some packers only want hogs of U.S. origin. Kynoch says its hurting producers in both countries.

"It’s a huge concern here in Iowa," Kynoch explains. "Some of the barns that were being supplied from Canada are now going empty and sitting. You know, these guys got payments to make on those barns and taxes to pay—but yet they can’t find pigs to put in them. So it’s a huge concern for a lot of producers."

Kynoch says Manitoba’s shipments of weanling pigs into the U.S. have declined 30 percent says COOL was implemented last fall.

"We actually have a lot of barns (in Manitoba) that have had to shut down temporarily—the sow barns that were supplying those barns," Kynoch says. "So again, same thing back in Canada—there’s producers that have payments and taxes to pay and they just can’t do it right now with the uncertainty of COOL."

Kynoch hopes that the COOL rules will be modified to prevent it from being a trade barrier. He made his comments at Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines.