Some in the cattle industry see opportunity in the BSE-closed border.
Saskatchewan-based Natural Valley Farms will hold a grand opening for its new processing facility in Wolseley on June 14.
The company has been using existing slaughter facilities to get its product into the marketplace and will open its own plant in Neudorf, Sask., later this summer. It will slaughter 50,000 head each year.
Although hundreds of new packing plants have been proposed, Natural Valley is one of a much smaller number that have proceeded past the planning stage, as Canadians look to build a stronger domestic industry.
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Anne Dunford, a market analyst at Canfax Research Services in Calgary, said total Canadian slaughter dropped from 3.45 million head in 2002 to 3.16 million in 2003. It then took a 27 percent leap to 4.01 million head in 2004.
“We’re looking at 4.273 million for ’05,” she said.
While expansions by the larger industry players, Cargill and Tyson, account for much of the increase, each small expansion at provincial plants, plus retrofit and new construction pushed capacity higher.
In Salmon Arm, B.C., for example, a mothballed plant was reopened to kill 250 head per week, and in Ontario, Gencor Foods purchased the former MGI plant in Kitchener and is now killing about 1,100 head per week.
Numerous provincial plants and, in Saskatchewan, health-inspected facilities, have waiting lists.
“Everything counts,” said Dunford.
“Marketings are going to be between 4.5 and five million over the next couple of years, so there is room.”
In Alberta, Cargill is increasing its slaughter at High River from 4,100 head per day to 5,000, while Tyson’s Brooks facility will be slaughtering 4,700 per day by mid-June, also an increase of 900 head.
Rancher’s Beef Ltd., a partnership of Sunterra Farms, Cor Van Raay Farms and 45 others, has started a project at its plant in Innisfail, Alta. The plant is killing cattle older than 30 months.
In Moose Jaw, Sask., XL Foods Inc. doubled its cooler capacity and moved to a second shift in order to process more cattle. The plant is slaughtering about 1,200 per day but could handle as many as 1,500.
