Prairie producers are happy to see Olymel putting its money where its mouth is.
“Everybody’s been talking about double shift forever, and this looks like the first plant that will do it,” said Western Hog Exchange general manager Mack Rennie about Olymel’s expansion of its hog slaughter plant in Red Deer.
Olymel is spending between $13 million and $15 million on improvements including new coolers, freezers and handling facilities to cope with the extra production from a hoped-for second shift at the Red Deer plant.
It now kills 45,000 pigs per week, but a second shift will take it to 90,000.
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Olymel has said it wants to begin a double shift in the autumn, after the facility expansion is completed, and Rennie believes it will occur.
“They’re spending an awful lot of money if they’re not going to a double shift,” said Rennie.
Both the Red Deer Olymel plant and the Maple Leaf Foods Brandon plant are designed to handle two full shifts of production, but for years expansion hopes have gone unfulfilled.
Maple Leaf Foods wants to expand Brandon’s production but needs environmental approval for the project and then needs to find enough workers to fill a second shift.
Olymel has already begun courting workers in Red Deer and in other places with packing plants, such as Saskatoon.
“Labour will be the No. 1 concern,” said Rennie.”It always is in the packing sector.”
Alberta producers are still shipping thousands of pigs per week out of their province for slaughter, and Saskatchewan has many large producers that could feed an expanded Red Deer plant, so “I’m sure they’ll get the pigs no problem at all.”
