A Moose Jaw, Sask. pork packing plant that’s sat shut since 2006 may provide a much-needed outlet for the province’s hogs by the end of this year.
Richmond, B.C.-based meat firm Donald’s Fine Foods and its specialty pork packing arm, Britco Pork of Langley, B.C., has wrapped up the purchase of the former Moose Jaw Pork Packers pork processing plant, idle since 2006.
According to Saskatchewan’s pork board, Donald’s, operated by businessman Donald Leung since 1993, currently slaughters up to 1,500 head per day at Langley and processes at Richmond for distribution in the domestic and export markets, mainly to Asia.
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Donald’s senior vice-president Tony Martinez recently told the program Farmscape, sponsored by Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork, that the company was running out of capacity and looking to expand.
And B.C.’s hog production has been shrinking significantly, he noted, telling the Vancouver Sun last week that “we can’t get enough pork in B.C.”
“I think for us it means obviously growth and the ability to satisfy our customer base, with that product that we could use right now,” he told Farmscape’s Bruce Cochrane, “and we’re hoping that it’s exciting around the Saskatchewan producer groups and stuff that currently don’t have anything there and they’ll have a pork slaughter processor in there.”
That’s a reference to Saskatchewan hog farmers and their lack of nearby slaughter capacity, since Maple Leaf-owned Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods shut its Saskatoon plant in 2007.
The bulk of Saskatchewan production is currently trucked to packers in Alberta or to Maple Leaf’s plant at Brandon, Man.
Martinez told Farmscape that the company still needs to negotiate a union contract, then must refurbish the facility to meet Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) export standards.
Ideally, he said, the company would like to see hogs slaughtered and processed at Moose Jaw by year’s end.
At shutdown in 2006, the Moose Jaw plant had capacity to handle about 5,000 hogs a week.
“Roasters”
According to the Sun’s Randy Shore, Donald’s specializes in “farm-to-fork supply management.” For one example, he wrote, Britco contracts Alberta’s Sunhaven Farms to produce 100-day drug-free pork, marketed by Thrifty Foods.
About half Donald’s business is in off cuts and offal, sold into Asia, Shore quoted Martinez as saying, while the company’s round hogs, or “roasters,” are sold in B.C.’s Lower Mainland for Chinese-style whole roast hog.
According to the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, Donald’s will pay just $100,000 for the plant, which was taken over by the City of Moose Jaw at the end of March for years of unpaid municipal and school taxes, reportedly worth about $600,000.
The Moose Jaw plant comes with a chequered history, previously shutting down in 2005 when producers stopped delivering to what was then called World Wide Pork due to unpaid bills, the Times-Herald reported.
The plant briefly reopened in 2006 under an ownership consortium that included pork producers and plant employees, after the city agreed to a substantial tax abatement.
Donald’s announcement, estimated to eventually bring up to 200 jobs to the city, comes as Moose Jaw’s other major meat packer, XL Beef, remains shut due to a lockout of its unionized employees dating back to September 2009.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1400, which represents XL Beef’s Moose Jaw staff, reported on its website Tuesday that there are currently no bargaining dates set.
The union said it has had no response from XL’s owner, Alberta’s Nilsson Bros., since the workers rejected the company’s last contract offer.
