A fire last fall failed to take the pluck out of Manitoba’s largest poultry processor.
The Oct. 7 fire caused at least $4.5 million in damages to Granny’s Poultry Co-operative at Blumenort, Man.
However, the company has rebounded in a hurry and now has plans for expansion.
The expansion, to be phased in over several years, is expected to begin with an addition of 50,000 sq. feet to the plant at Blumenort. The first phase is expected to cost $9.2 million, said Granny’s Poultry general manager Wayne Morrison.
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“We’re making ourselves more efficient,” said Morrison. “We’re planning for the future.”
Granny’s Poultry slaughters about 300,000 chickens and 30,000 turkeys per week. The first phase of expansion won’t drive those numbers up much, said Morrison, but will lay the groundwork for further expansion in the next few years.
The company wants to eventually triple its capacity at the Blumenort plant.
The future of supply management in Canada could influence how quickly that goal is met. The supply management system remains at the centre of debate in Canada and will undergo further scrutiny during negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
If other countries, especially the United States, win concessions against Canada’s supply management system, Canadian poultry processors could face stiffer competition.
Under current supply management rules, imports are controlled by high tariffs, which render non-Canadian poultry, dairy and egg products more expensive than domestic goods.
While bracing for the prospect of more competition, an expansion at Granny’s Poultry will also advance efforts to move more poultry into the U.S., Morrison said.
Markets and the poultry supply will influence how quickly expansion goes ahead at the Blumenort plant.
“We could build the Taj Mahal now,” said Morrison, “and have so much under-utilized capital out there that it would choke us.”
Manitoba poultry producers are also in an expansion mode. The producers have embarked on a three-year program to increase chicken production by 35 percent. They are now in year two of that program.
The expansion at Granny’s Poultry is heralded as good news by Waldie Klassen, chair of the Manitoba Chicken Producer Board. It helps to ensure markets for poultry grown in Manitoba.
“We’re pretty optimistic right now,” Klassen said. “There are some dark clouds on the horizon though.”
He regards low hog prices as one of those dark clouds. A prolonged slump in those prices could lead to a continued drop in the price of pork sold over the counter. Cheaper pork would likely syphon off some of the demand for poultry, Klassen said.
The first phase of expansion at Granny’s Poultry is expected to include a high-speed eviscerating line and an air-chill system. The air chill will replace a water-chill system for the processed poultry. Because the poultry would no longer be chilled in tanks of cold water, the process will be faster, said Morrison, and improve food safety.
The plant will also gain an automated receiving area for live poultry arriving for slaughter. Birds arriving there will be moved in drawers, not cages. The use of plastic drawers, which will slide into metal frames, promises to be more humane than the current use of cages, Morrison said.
The fire at Granny’s Poultry knocked the plant out of production just before Thanksgiving last October. Arson is suspected, but police have not revealed a possible motive. Their investigation continues.
“It’s a huge volume of people that have to be interviewed,” said Staff Sgt. Ray Kolstad of the Steinbach RCMP. “About every employee that worked there that day has to be interviewed and then you look for links.”
