Canada-The CEO of Canada’s largest pork processor on swine flu.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX:MFI) chief executive Michael McCain says that consumer misconceptions about the swine flu probably won’t hurt the food processor’s meat business, even if countries around the world start to ban imports of pork products.

McCain said Wednesday that Maple Leaf might even see an increased demand for the company’s pork, especially if Mexican pork exports are banned in some countries.

"Certainly if Mexican pork exports are impacted negatively it would tend to help Canadian pork exports," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press after Maple Leaf reported the company’s first-quarter earnings and held its annual meeting.

But McCain added that it’s still too early to determine whether Maple Leaf will see any impact from the swine flu, and that pork exports are only a minimal part of the business.

He said that historically the company has exported 20 to 30 per cent of its pork, but that it’s "less than that" these days, though he declined to give specifics.

The company still operates a pork processing plant in Burlington, Ont. but has restructured in recent years to focus on higher value-added consumer meat products.

"To our organization we’re not seeing it as a material issue one way or another," he added.

The Canadian pork industry has been plagued by uncertainty this week over fears that misinformation about the swine flu could cause a drastic decline in demand for raw pork or meat products such as bacon and ham.

There is no scientific evidence that swine flu is transmitted through eating pork products. However, countries around the world have been taking precautions to avoid the spread of swine flu. Reports say pigs are being killed en masse in Egypt. The Lebanese government banned the import of pigs and raw uncooked pork.

The swift international response has sent U.S. hog futures prices - which give a value the selling price of pigs on the market - into a downward spiral.

Jacques Pomerleau, executive director of Canada Pork International, said that the domestic pork industry is in limbo as it awaits signs of how many countries might restrict imports.

Half of Canada’s pork production is exported.

"Nobody is certain about the situation, so we have rumours in the trades that such and such a country could ban Canadian pork ... but the Canadian government hasn’t been officially notified," said Pomerleau.

"The whole thing is completely uncertain."

International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said the Canadian government is trying to get the message out to international buyers of pork that there’s no scientific basis for any ban on meat products.

"These products are safe, and we are maintaining that and we are asking other countries to follow that," he said in Montreal.

"There’s a possibility that people who are not properly informed on the issue could generate certain levels of concern and that is a concern to us."

On Wednesday, Maple Leaf, which was the centre of its own meat scandal last year over an outbreak of Listeriosis linked to products produced at one of its plants, pulled itself to profitability in the first quarter, and boosted sales by more than six per cent.

However, the Toronto-based company was still struggling with some of the after-effects of last summer’s Listeria poisoning.

Maple Leaf reported $2.9 million in profit during the quarter, worth two cents per share, compared with a break-even result a year earlier.

Sales increased 6.3 per cent to $1.28 billion compared to $1.2 billion, mostly on price increases and favourable foreign currency conversions based on its fresh meat sales.

McCain told investors at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday that the food producer - which makes processed meats under the Maple Leaf and Burns brands and is also Canada’s largest bread company - was making progress towards returning to normalcy.

"Where this could’ve been a fatal blow for some companies, we’ve come through this storm with the organizational, reputation and financial strength to rebuild," McCain told shareholders.

"Because of last August’s tragedy Maple Leaf now owns the Listeria issue. We cannot forget that link and we cannot ask Canadians to forget that link."

The Listeria outbreak, traced to cold cuts produced in the company’s Toronto plant last summer, killed 22 people, triggering a national scare and a public-relations nightmare for one of Canada’s oldest and most identifiable food companies.

The tainted deli meats were linked to the Bartor Road processing plant in Toronto. Maple Leaf has said the most likely explanation for the contamination was an accumulation of bacteria deep within its meat slicing equipment.

McCain said in the company’s earnings announcement that margins were depressed in its packaged meat operations due to the recall.

However, he reminded investors that the company is relatively recession resistant, and that it could reap the benefits of tightened consumer spending.

"We expect that we’ll experience the effects of channel shift as consumers are tending to eat away from home less in favour of food at home," McCain said.

Maple Leaf’s earnings from operations before restructuring and other one-time costs fell 4.5 per cent to $31.6 million on declines in packaged meat profits.

The results were offset by cost cuts in pork processing and hog production, and price increases across the bakery segment.

Shares in the company gained 15 cents to close at $8.60 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

At Canada Bread Co. (TSX:CBY), 89.8 per cent owned by Maple Leaf, sales rose 7.9 per cent from a year earlier, to $413.1 million from $382.9 million.

Net income was $14.9 million or 59 cents per share, compared with $12.2 million or 48 cents per share.