GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – A group of northern British Columbia bison ranchers is searching for more investors to help boost sales of buffalo meat.
The Northern B.C. Buffalo Co. hopes money from another 10 investors will be enough to allow them to develop a marketing strategy to sell their bison sausage and meat across the province.
“We’ve been trying to concentrate locally and get the bugs out of the system. Now we’re ready to take the next step.
“The next big step is marketing,” Vance Lucas, a shareholder, told the Peace Region Bison Producers Association’s annual meeting.
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The group has already invested $600,000 in its provincially inspected meat processing facility in Fort St. John, B.C. About one third of that money is from the original 10 bison producers. The rest is from bank financing.
“It’s not the big answer to an individual situation, but it’s little steps forward,” said Lucas.
The concept of a bison slaughter facility came out of the International Bison Conference two years ago where it was made clear producers had to take a more active role in selling the meat from their animals.
The buffalo company’s original plan called for a federally inspected meat packing plant with an attached retail store.
A German sausage maker guided them through the first phase of buying equipment, developing recipes and designing a blueprint for the store and processing facility.
The way it’s done in Germany doesn’t fly with Canadian food regulators and the group had to change its plans. It built a less expensive and less regulated provincial slaughter plant, but cannot ship the meat outside of British Columbia.
“To go from being a farmer to being a meat processor and market is a whole different deal, that’s for sure,” said Lucas.
For 21/2 years the farmers learned about labelling, meat regulations and marketing plans. Their goal is to slaughter six animals a day at the plant. So far they have slaughtered 35 animals in the first three months of operation.
Fern Mertins of Cecil Lake, B.C., one of the original shareholders, said despite the growing pains he believes the plant is one way bison producers can survive.
“We want a home for our animals,” said Mertins, who has 450 bison and few outlets to sell the animals.
Now that the company has the facility built and the equipment working, it is focusing on selling meat to stores and restaurants in Vancouver and the lower mainland.
In November, the company contracted a distributor to sell the meat into northern Peace area stores, but more money is needed to develop a marketing plan for the rest of the province.
New investors must buy 120 shares at $1 per share, plus contribute $25,000 in a shareholder’s loan to be repaid when the company is making a profit.
