Officials with the Canadian Pork Council are pleased with an announcement last week that will see up to $18.5 million pumped into research and innovation in Canada's swine sector.

The federal government has committed up to $12.7 million to Swine Innovation Porc, a non-profit corporation committed to facilitating research in the Canadian swine sector, under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Clusters. Swine Innovation Porc will also contribute up to an additional $5.8 million to the Swine Research and Development Cluster.

"Science and research innovation are cornerstones of the...Canadian pork industry and this funding goes a long way to help us address some of the challenges that we're facing," said John Ross, executive director for the Canadian Pork Council.

The benefits of this added research will benefit Canada's pork industry two-fold, according to Ross.

He said the first benefit is that research is going to get done in Canada and will happen on projects that are of importance to Canadian producers at the farm level. "Finding solutions to the challenges that they face (is) super important for us."

Second, Ross believes investing in the cluster program will offer added efficiency by having an increased level of collaboration between Canadian researchers. "That increased collaboration provides really good dividends in the sense of efficiency and the effectiveness of the research that we do."

Ross feels that this on-going research will also help Canada's pork industry compete against other countries by finding new ways of doing things and filtering those solutions down to the producer level.

"Whether it's a challenge of increasing our feed efficiency, whether it's related to animal care, whether it's related to barn design and the efficiency of the way we utilize inputs (like) electricity for example."

He noted additional research will also help the industry better promote the quality and nutrition of their product to Canadians and other consumers around the world.

"That needs to sit on a science-base," said Ross, "it's almost an entry card into the game. People want to know, 'Have you got the science right? Ok...tell me about your product'."

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, pork and hog sector cash receipts reached $4.5 billion in 2017.