The writing was on the wall several months ago, but it became etched in stone this month.
There were doubts last fall that Carvell Trading Limited would proceed with plans to revive the former Burns meat packing plant at Brandon, Man. Carvell, an Israeli consortium of investors, failed to produce a convincing strategy to market processed meats from the plant.
Last week, it was confirmed Carvell will not overhaul the former Burns plant. It’s expected that ownership of the plant, which has been dormant since 1989, will revert back to the City of Brandon.
Read Also
Short rapeseed crop may put China in a bind
Industry thinks China’s rapeseed crop is way smaller than the official government estimate. The country’s canola imports will also be down, so there will be a lot of unmet demand.
“What it means, at least at this point, is it’s not going to be reopening as a meat processing facility,” said city solicitor Robyn Singleton. “Just what will happen with it, I’m not sure.”
Carvell Trading announced in the fall of 1997 that it would spend $20 million to transform the abandoned Burns plant into a kosher meat processing facility. At full capacity, the plant was expected to handle $170 million annually in exports.
Carvell planned to export much of the processed meat to Israel, Eastern Europe and Russia. The main products were to be kosher and halal meats and it was expected to give farmers a market for more than 600 cattle a day. There was also the prospect of at least 250 new jobs at Brandon.
James Bezan was not surprised to learn last week that the venture had fallen through. A partner in IBG Global Meats, a livestock export and consulting firm, Bezan was once interested in working with Carvell to find uses for the abandoned plant.
However, Bezan said his relationship with Carvell deteriorated last fall. He said the company failed to provide proof that a viable market existed for the kosher and halal meats it intended to process.
“It was impossible for us to go ahead and do any planning without that.”
At that point, IBG Global Meats encouraged Carvell to look at other business and industry options for the plant.
Bezan, who farms near Teulon, Man., is doubtful a meat packing plant can succeed at the former Burns location. With Maple Leaf Meats building its $112 million hog processing plant at Brandon, it would be difficult to compete for workers, he said.
Meanwhile, Bezan has also stepped back from efforts to start a new generation co-operative, which could have provided livestock to the Carvell facility. He said other options were considered, such as slaughtering oversized cattle for export into the United States, but nobody was willing to put up the necessary cash.
“We have become disenchanted with the whole process,” he said last week.
Rick Wright of Heartland Livestock Services was skeptical of the Carvell proposal from the time it was announced. He said Manitoba’s feedlot industry did not have the infrastructure needed to supply the proposed facility.
If the project had gone ahead, Carvell would have encountered competition from major players in the meat packing industry such as Cargill and IBP. A question in the back of Wright’s mind was why one of those corporations hadn’t tapped into the overseas market for kosher and halal meats if there truly was the demand cited by Carvell.
“It was one, one, one, but it didn’t add up to three.”
Singleton said there are other parties interested in the former Burns plant “for a whole range of uses.” He believes some of them may now come forward.
