The expansion of a Saskatoon hog packing plant is good news for everybody. It’s good for the province, said premier Roy Romanow. It’s good for the city, said mayor Henry Dayday. It’s good for hog producers, said the president of Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods Inc.
But what about the gophers?
The new 157,000 sq. foot smoked sausage and wiener facility will force hundreds of resident rodents to find a new 20-acre field to settle.
At least the critters got some revenge as dignitaries and business leaders plunged ankle-deep in holes during an Oct. 4 ground-breaking ceremony within sight of Mitchell’s existing Saskatoon facility.
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Don Hrapchak, general manager of SPI Marketing Group Inc., was one of many provincial officials attending the ground (and ankle) breaking ceremony who “got stuck in a gopher hole,” an analogy that doesn’t fit the circumstance.
Hrapchak said the $45 million processing facility is welcome news for the provincial hog sector. Even better news was the presence of the chair of J.M. Schneider Inc. at the ceremony.
“When you have Schneiders deciding to pick Saskatchewan, Saskatoon specifically, to spend that kind of money it means that they intend to stay here.”
Schneiders owns 32 percent of the Saskatoon hog processor. Hrapchak said the Ontario-based processor is putting up most of the $45 million expansion money, which will make it a majority shareholder in Mitchell’s.
Officials at Mitchell’s say shareholders, including Schneiders, are putting up the bulk of the expansion money, but it hasn’t been determined how much each shareholder will commit to the project.
Hrapchak said Schneider’s interest in Saskatchewan sends a strong message to the province’s hog producers to grow more pigs.
More jobs, more hogs
Stu Irvine, president of Mitchell’s, said the new plant is expected to be running by April 6, 2001. The plant is expected to create 160 new jobs and foster demand for Saskatchewan pigs. He would like to see the province’s hog numbers grow by at least 200,000 by the time the facility opens.
Mitchell’s expects to process about 875,000 of the one million Saskat-chewan pigs available for slaughter next year. That’s not enough raw material to fill Mitchell’s needs once the new smoked sausage and wiener facility is in operation.
“If the hog numbers do not increase, we will bring in the raw material as required from either other provinces or the United States,” said Irvine.
“I think there’s a strong message here to producers and to the government that hog production is critical for this industry to grow in the province.”
He said the existing plant has been unable to fill the demand for smoked sausages and wieners for two years. In the summer, the fill rate falls as low as 92.5 percent.
“Our sales force isn’t even out selling those products anymore,” said Irvine.
The $45 million facility, which will also produce a large variety of sliced luncheon and deli products, is just the first phase of Mitchell’s expansion plan.
The next step would be a ham processing operation and the final phase a bacon plant. But Irvine said the company won’t move past phase one if the province’s producers don’t respond with increased hog numbers.
