Wild boar producers think establishing a marketing organization and finding a slaughter plant could stop their industry’s slide and get it back on track.
The Western Canadian Wild Boar Association is setting up a new-generation co-operative. It will organize slaughter in a federally inspected, European Union-approved facility, and then market the meat.
Eventually the co-op could build its own slaughter plant, guaranteeing a market for meat that has had trouble finding a home, said boar association president Rick McLennan.
“There’s been no market for the animals,” said McLennan, who lives near Swift Current. “We’re trying to rectify that.”
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
A Saskatchewan government report said: “The industry is not organized for orderly marketing. Competition is fierce, prices fluctuate, co-operation among marketers is absent.”
About half of prairie wild boar producers have quit the industry because they had trouble selling the animals and meat, McLennan said. He thinks about 100 producers would join the co-op, which will give it a strong production base.
Saskatoon consultant Brenda Stefanson said the co-op could be set up by February. An interim board of directors is now being assembled to choose its course.
A co-op could contract with an existing facility to process boars. Or a mobile slaughter plant now being used in South Dakota could be brought north and used in various places.
After slaughter, the co-op would find markets for the meat and return profits to producers, Stefanson said.
McLennan said shares in the new co-op will probably cost from $80 to $100 each. Each share will entitle and obligate a producer to deliver one wild boar per year. He thinks the co-op will need $200,000 to $250,000 to get established.
