Staff at Thunder Creek Pork in Moose Jaw, Sask., are working four-day weeks as the processing plant undergoes a major renovation to install new equipment.
The equipment will allow the company to switch from the hot skinning processing method to scalding carcasses.
Tony Martinez, vice-president at Donald’s Fine Foods/Britco Pork in Langley, B.C., which owns the Moose Jaw facility, said the project will cost more than $3 million. Most of the work will be done on weekends so the plant can continue operating without layoffs to the 170 employees.
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A one-week shutdown is also expected just before the targeted completion date of June 11.
“We don’t see kill numbers dropping,” Martinez said last week.
The plant processes 4,500 hogs per week, which should rise to full capacity of 5,000 to 6,000 after the changes, depending on markets, he said.
“Most consumers are used to (pork from) scalding,” he said. “Hot skinning is more of an Asia-Japan thing.”
When hot skinning, the skins are loosened from the carcass and pulled before other processing is done.
When scalding, the carcass is put in hot water and the hair scraped off but the skin left on.
Previous owners of the facility focused on Japan but couldn’t make a go of it in a relatively small market.
Changing processing methods could open up other markets, Martinez said.
Half of Thunder Creek’s product is exported and half sold domestically.
The process in Moose Jaw will be the same as it is at the company’s facilities in British Columbia.
“We think we’ll have greater quality and consistency,” Martinez said. “We feel we’ll benefit from an overall marketing perspective.”
There is also a cost benefit to this method, he said.
Donald’s/Britco opened the plant in January 2011 after the city took it over for outstanding taxes and offered it for sale.
Martinez said the business is going well, although marketing and hog prices have been more difficult than management had originally hoped.
“I don’t think anyone is having a whole pile of fun out there right now,” he said of the industry.
