Westpork posts $8.3 million profit after pork price rebound

A strong recovery in pork prices has been the key driver behind WA’s biggest pig producer posting an after-tax profit of $8.28 million for the last financial year. Westpork’s healthy profit marks a big rebound after a $156,000 loss a year earlier, when a national oversupply triggered weak prices. Revenue increased to $72.3m, up from $66.7m the previous year, but there were also higher production and feed costs, which rose to $49m from $42m. Financial statements lodged with the corporate watchdog showed the value of Westpork’s pig inventory also recovered, worth $9.1m, compared to a loss of $5.4m the year before. In January 2019, Westpork bought the Kojonup and Pinjarra assets of rival GD Pork which collapsed into administration after a dramatic fall in pork prices nationally, and following a high-profile scandal in which the former owner was convicted of smuggling boar semen from Denmark into Australia. In acquiring GD Pork, Westpork became the owner of 2000 “super sows” bred from the superior genetics. The pigs can produce 10 per cent more piglets than those bred from standard Australian genetics. The acquisition of GD Pork’s assets and subsequent increase in scale contributed somewhat to Westpork’s strong results, though the recovering pork price was the overriding driver. Westpork chief executive Neil Ferguson did not return calls.