An Ontario-based company is first out of the gate in the great prairie pig scramble.
As farmers, feed companies and investors race to build barns and fatten pig production, J.M. Schneider Inc. opened the first half of a new $50 million processing plant to take in some of the new hogs.
Vice-president Eric Schneider was in Winnipeg last week to cut the ribbon on a 10,800-sq. metre facility where 220 employees will cut and process 24,000 to 30,000 hogs per week.
The new plant doubles what the company was handling at its plant in Winnipeg. It will continue to use the old plant for slaughtering hogs.
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As hog supplies and world demand increase over the next three to five years, the company will add a 10,800 sq. metre slaughter floor to its new plant, Schneider said.
When the project is finished, more than 600 employees will handle up to 50,000 hogs per week.
In for the long term
“We expect (the new plant) to be an anchor for the Manitoba hog producers which will give them the confidence to increase their production, knowing that Schneiders is here to provide a ready outlet for their hogs,” he said.
“We’re ready to partner with them and we’ve made the investment to back that up.”
Manitoba produces about three million hogs a year, and Schneider is confident there will be enough to go around.
He said the company plans to buy hogs through Manitoba Pork and direct from Manitoba farmers.
“As we understand, the Manitoba production is sufficient to meet the needs of the facility,” he said.
Manitoba farmers produced about three million hogs in 1995. Total value of production was $353 million.
Then the Manitoba government eliminated the single-desk marketing powers of Manitoba Pork to try to spur production.
Agriculture minister Harry Enns has stated repeatedly he wants to see production double by the year 2000. The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments have set up similar goals.
Meanwhile, hog companies from space-squeezed Taiwan have been scouting the Prairies for investment opportunities. One company recently announced a plant for Lethbridge, Alta. to handle 450,000 hogs per year.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is entertaining bids from communities across Western Canada for a plant to handle three million hogs per year.
Schneider said the interest in investing in pork is a good indication of the opportunities in world markets.
“Our Prairies have agrarian focused economies,” he explained. “They have good, strong grain supplies for feed stocks, skilled farmers, and the land mass required for large scale livestock operations.”
