NEUDORF, Sask. – If all goes well, Natural Valley Farms’ slaughter facility in the Qu’Appelle Valley just south of here will be open for business July 17.
Construction is still under way, but at least one potential offshore customer was looking for profit during recent tours and the official opening ceremony.
Brett Juong, a beef and pork importer from South Korea, said his country has a high demand for grain-fed natural beef. Because his country’s border has been closed to Canadian beef since BSE was found in May 2003, filling that demand has become a challenge.
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“What we have now is only from Australia and New Zealand, which is basically grass fed,” Juong said. “I came here to see the opportunities for the future because the border will be open soon, at least within this year or maybe the beginning of next year for Canadian beef, so I’m looking for my supplier.”
South Korea imported about 350,000 tonnes from North America before BSE, he said. Canadian exports totalled only about four percent of that. Juong said that’s because Americans handled most of the trade.
But BSE has customers thinking more about their food supply and producers thinking more about their product. He estimated Canada could fill more than 10 percent of the South Korean market by 2015.
Once that border opens, he expects to buy between 40 and 60 tonnes of beef from Natural Valley.
Juong said the closed border is a political issue. He said the Canadian government should be more aggressive about getting back into the South Korean market.
Natural Valley sales manager Todd Darcy said he thinks Canada has taken a good approach by not applying too much pressure. He said Asian countries seem to be more interested in doing business with Canada now and that should generate increased market share.
“I sense that through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency they’re trying … to be more industry oriented,” Darcy said. “They just sent out a letter asking how they should do that to all the producers in the country and the packing plants in the country so we can get our message to the government and to our export partners quicker.”
Meanwhile, contractors are completing the slaughter plant that will supply Natural Valley’s processing facility, which opened a year ago in nearby Wolseley. Together, the plants cost about $20 million and will employ about 100 people.
The company has been using other packing plants to slaughter its cattle until its own facility is ready. It has been processing about 500 carcasses each week and the federally inspected Neudorf plant will kill 1,250 per week in a single shift. Natural Valley intends to launch a new branded beef July 19.
In 2007, the company intends to custom slaughter bison and elk.
It is also looking at partnerships with producer groups that want to establish packing plants near Foam Lake, Sask., and Neepawa, Man.
