Presentations by representatives of pork producer associations from Minnesota and Iowa, part of reciprocal trade advocacy efforts, were among the highlights of Manitoba Pork's 2017 Annual General Meeting last week in Winnipeg.

Kevin Estrem, the Past President of Minnesota Pork, says relations among pork producers in Manitoba and Minnesota are very good.

Kevin Estrem-Minnesota Pork

One thing about working with Manitoba Pork is we've had a very good relationship for many years.

They've come down to our trade show and meetings and we've come up here and we share so much alike because we get so many pigs from Manitoba down through Minnesota and going elsewhere beyond into different states.

The main travel is through Minnesota so our main concern is disease control and different viruses that can be spread, not only when they're coming into Minnesota but the idea of their trucks coming back to Canada, what possibly they would be bringing back.

It's a two way street and we're very concerned, just like Manitoba is very concerned on how we can actually control this cross reference that's going on.

We're always working dramatically to keep everything under control.

The protocols that are in place, again, is the biosecurity and both Manitoba and Minnesota are very strict on what can cross the border.

Communication is a big factor in this.

We've got a lot of things in place.

We've got places where they can sanitize their trucks before they come back to Canada and vice versa.

Mr Estrem says pork producers in Manitoba and Minnesota share identical goals of providing a very safe and healthy product.