By Andrew Heck
With the COVID-19 pandemic already well within the rear-view mirror, it’s no secret that this roughly two-year window of time has resulted in permanent impacts on society. In the interest of public health, many provincial governments in Canada quickly shut down businesses and restricted in-person gatherings as the pandemic progressed; however, these decisions were not without consequence, as an unintentional shift in consumer behaviour has left much of the foodservice industry in the lurch.
Earlier this year, Restaurants Canada reported that 62 per cent of Canadian restaurants are operating at a loss or barely breaking even. This is highlighted by a notable uptick in restaurant closures in 2023, with bankruptcies up 44 per cent – the highest annual figure in a decade.
According to Canada’s Food Price Report for 2024, published by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, in 2023, restaurant pricing overall increased by 6.1 per cent, echoing the four-decade-high 6.8 per cent increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported by Statistics Canada for all of 2022. In the 2024 Canadian Diner Trends Report published by TouchBistro, a survey of 1,000 Canadians indicated an 11 per cent drop in restaurant visits between 2022 and 2023.
Taken together, the data suggests Canadian consumers are pinching pennies (or nickels, thanks to inflation), which is sending the signal to some chefs and restaurant owners they could stand to do the same. The challenge is to continue meeting customer expectations while staying affordable.
As the price of proteins remains elevated, the conspicuous absence of pork in Canadian restaurants – outside of the breakfast menu – is hard to ignore. While some diners will forgo pork for dietary or religious reasons, for those open to eating it, it could help foodservice businesses regain their financial advantage. By working to build consumer knowledge and loyalty to pork, everyone from producers and processors to retailers and restaurants can benefit.
Chef expertise adds class
The Culinary Federation is Canada’s largest federally chartered professional chefs’ organization. Each year, the organization holds a week-long conference with presentations, roundtable discussions, fun competitions and plenty of opportunities for networking and hospitality.
This year’s conference was held in Edmonton, with the theme, ‘Connecting Our Culinary Roots.’ The theme comes from a collective desire to bring food back to the basics. This includes an interest in sustainability, growing and preserving food, and re-learning recipes and routines from a simpler time.
Undoubtedly, pork fits this mould perfectly, according to Ron Wong, Chef Instructor, NAIT – a post-secondary trade institution in Edmonton. NAIT’s Culinary Arts diploma program and Professional Meat Cutting & Merchandising certificate program provide practical training to aspiring cooks and butchers. On top of his role at NAIT, Wong is the Vice President for Culinary Federation’s Western Region.
“When you look at pork, you can see it has been popular across continents and cultures for a long time,” said Wong. “For chefs, pork provides a great canvas to express creativity in a cost-effective way.”
Wong’s also a staple in the western Canadian BBQ scene, leading student teams in Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) competitions every year around Alberta. Taking cues from the traditional BBQ culture in the U.S., many top Canadian competitors swear by pork – and they aren’t afraid to express it.
Jarrod Taschuk is the pit master for the Edmonton-based Brisket Butts BBQ Team. In an unprecedented winning streak, Brisket Butts has clinched first-place in Pork at its five most-recent KCBS-sanctioned competitions, including two consecutive perfect scores. Until this year, a perfect score in Pork had yet to be earned by any team in any competition in Canada, ever.
“There are so many great teams out there, and a lot of support from the BBQ community and meat industry,” said Taschuk. “We’re proud of our success and eager to continue showing off what can be accomplished with products like high-quality Canadian pork.”
Taschuk was one of several competition BBQ teams involved in a non-competitive cookout hosted during the Culinary Federation Conference, for those in attendance.
“We wanted to bring together chefs and BBQ teams to expose them to one another,” said Wong. “There’s a lot of talent out there, and the more chefs can learn about new types of cooking, the better their craft becomes. Of course, pork plays a role in that.”
Showcasing the exquisite use of pork by chefs is just one way to build excitement and momentum, in addition to the obvious cost benefits and learning opportunities available for consumers to latch onto pork, whether prepared by their favourite establishments or at home.
Consumer engagement builds appreciation
Statistics Canada tracks prices of common foods at retail in Canada. While retail prices and wholesale prices are different, trends observed in key categories highlight pork’s advantage, especially since the arrival of COVID-19 in North America, in early 2020.
For example, StatsCan’s report tracks five categories of fresh beef, including stewing meat, striploin, top sirloin, rib cuts and ground beef. Between March 2020 and March 2024, an average of all categories shows a $2.67 increase per kilogram. For pork, StatsCan tracks three categories: loin cuts, rib cuts and shoulder cuts – excluding the most economical overall, ground pork – and the average increase there was just $1.28. While price is certainly not the only variable for chefs to consider, it stands to reason that, objectively, you would be hard-pressed to find better value in red meat than with pork.
Peter Keith is the co-owner of Meuwly’s: a celebrated charcuterie brand and boutique retailer in Edmonton. He worked his way up in the restaurant scene, starting as a dishwasher at 14-years-old, and even before he had reached 30, was being hailed as one of Canada’s biggest up-and-coming chef-entrepreneurs. Over the course of his journey, he studied under Wong and was named Culinary Federation’s Chef of the Year, in 2020.
“Why pork? It’s really the perfect meat to be used in many of our products, in terms of its mild flavour and good fat content, which is needed in sausage,” said Keith. “Not only that, but there’s plenty available from local producers, and it’s affordable.”
In addition to make and selling a litany of pork products, Meuwly’s also offers hot food deli service, carries a wide range of products from other local artisans and hosts interactive experiences, like sausage-making classes. Gord Heck was a participant in one of the recent classes.
“Growing up on the farm, our family would always make a big batch of sausage every fall to last us through winter,” said Heck. “Times change, and many of our family members have since moved off the farm, but it bring backs memories. The product we’re taking home is also going to be great on my smoker!”
Whether at home or in the restaurant, pork’s merits are easily appreciated by those who understand its benefits. The challenge is communicating these virtues to the wider audience in foodservice.
Canadian pork promotion is adapting
While consumer marketing has been outside of the wheelhouse of western Canadian pork producer organizations for some time, these organizations’ producer-led boards of directors have increasingly looked at ramping up efforts.
“In the early 2010s, negative industry factors made it difficult for producers to really acknowledge the powerful role of consumers,” said Stan Vanessen, Chair, Alberta Pork. “Since then, our industry and world have changed considerably, and it’s time we start carefully approaching the matter again.”
Alberta Pork, Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork recently collaborated with Canada Pork to promote Verified Canadian Pork to more than 15,000 foodservice industry subscribers of Western Restaurant News, by purchasing double-page spreads in its Summer 2024 and Fall 2024 editions.
“We identified Western Restaurant News as an untapped resource to reach restaurants,” said Jeremy Yim, Director, National Marketing, Canada Pork. “When provincial pork producer organizations work together with Canada Pork, it’s an efficient and impactful way to spread messages that are important to their producers, our federal processors and pork end-users, like chefs and grocers.”
Dale MacKay is a former Top Chef Canada winner and proprietor of Avenue Restaurant, F&B Restaurant and Little Grouse on the Prairie. He works with Sask Pork frequently and advised the group with suggestions on how to make the advertisement appealing to chefs and restaurant owners.
“Pork loin is one of my favourite cuts to cook and use at home or at the restaurant,” said MacKay. “It’s easy to prepare and full of flavour!”
MacKay also provided testimony in the advertorial, along with producing a social media video demonstrating how to prepare the ‘Ultimate Canadian Pork Burger’ – a concept created by the group last year, which is being re-used this year and into the future.
MacKay’s video was created as part of a separate yet connected partnership with Federated Co-op – a Verified Canadian Pork retailer with more than 100 locations across western Canada. The video was linked in a weekly store flyer and posted to Co-op’s Instagram feed, racking up hundreds of ‘likes’ in just days after being posted.
“We think this kind of content has the potential to reach broad audiences,” said Susan Riese, Director, Public Relations, Communications & Learnings, Manitoba Pork. “We’re very conscious that all of our marketing dollars are ultimately producer dollars, so we try to be as strategic as possible to get the most out of them.”
With producers increasingly committed to consumer marketing, a closer-knit value chain has the potential to strengthen ongoing activities to encourage pork purchases. These relationships bode well for the sustainability of pig and pork production.
Pork provides opportunity
As consumer trends, demographics and market dynamics continue to affect restaurant profitability, now may be the time for proprietors to ask themselves if pork could find a more prominent place on their menus.
Through the use of social media, traditional media, in-person events and other opportunities, pork proponents across the value chain have no shortage of options when it comes to applying their talents and enthusiasm toward the common goal of increasing pork’s appearance in restaurants.
