Ottawa and a Manitoba council funded by cattle producers and the provincial government have teamed up to promise money to create a federally licensed beef processing plant in Winnipeg.
Once open, the Keystone Processors Ltd. plant could sell beef throughout Canada and abroad. The provincially licensed plant’s market is now confined to Manitoba.
It would be the only federally licensed beef plant in Manitoba.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said Ottawa has conditionally approved a $10 million loan to KPL to upgrade the plant to federal standards.
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The Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council (MCEC), funded by a $2 per head levy on cattle sales matched by the provincial government, announced a $7.5 million equity investment.
“We will have a significant equity share in the business,” said MCEC executive director Kate Butler.
She estimated the plant will be opened in 2011 and have a daily kill of up to 500 head.
The plant aims to serve premium niche markets: natural beef that is hormone and antibiotic free and kosher and halal beef for Jewish and Muslim consumers.
“This is a great day,” she said.
“The Manitoba industry has been stunted for years without access to federally inspected beef facilities here at home.”
The federal loan comes from the $50 million Slaughter Improvement Program announced in the spring budget as a way to increase packer capacity in areas of the country now underserved. It is part of the government economic stimulus spending program.
Last week, the first federal loan was announced for the producer-owned Levinoff-Colbex plant in the Montreal area.
Minister of state for agriculture Jean-Pierre Blackburn said the $9.6 million loan, contingent on the packer completing a financial restructuring, will be used to build a processing plant beside the existing slaughter plant.
Levinoff-Colbex is the only significant processor of cull cows from Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
The federal government said other loans from the fund will be announced shortly. Groups with approved business plans and a proposal to increase packer capacity in their area had until the end of October to apply.
At the Winnipeg announcement, provincial agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk said access to nonprovincial markets is an important breakthrough for the Manitoba industry.
