New market for Ontario pork

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

A Quebec processor wants Ontario producers to supply its new slaughtering and deboning facility.

Sunnico Meats, Inc., plans to open its facility, located in Les Cédres, 20 kilometres from the Quebec/Ontario border, late this month or early December.

Dan Philip, one of the owners, says the venture is an extension of a Saint Hubert, Quebec, business established two years ago to package pork products for international export.

The Les Cédres 134,000 square feet facility will give the company the capacity not only to do its own slaughtering but also provide custom deboning services.

“The volume the first year is going to be roughly $62 million,” says Philip, describing the operation as medium-sized. The amount is based on slaughtering about 7,500 hogs a week.

The facility, formerly owned by a Quebec hog producer cooperative and extensively renovated, has a slaughter capacity is 3,000 hogs a day but the company will begin by processing 1,500 a day.

Why Ontario hogs?

Philip says a recent change in Quebec regulations blocks new packers’ access to live, Quebec-produced hogs because it requires that a packer’s historic demand be used to determine its allocation of hogs.

A new industry marketing agreement that began to take effect in September assigns Quebec pork producers to packers and requires packers to deal with surpluses. Contracting is still allowed for niche markets, but packers must work with their assigned partners.

“In Ontario it is a little bit more liberal – you can sign contracts and you can buy direct,” Philip says.

To date, the company has signed one Ontario producer on contract who will supply about 50 per cent of the facility’s production needs.

Philip says he wants to establish more contracts and also has an agreement with Ontario Pork to acquire animals through its marketing pool.

Ontario Pork’s director, Communications & Consumer Marketing, Keith Robbins confirms the arrangement explaining: “the board is working with processors to develop more marketing options for producers. 

Philip says the company is looking for a consistent supply of animals that are between 90-95 kilograms dressed (carcass) weight.

“For the moment we’re looking for regular pork,” he says. That could change once the federally licenced plant obtains approval to export to the European Union.

Philip anticipates the approval will come shortly after the plant begins operations. It already has approval to export to countries such as Russia and the Ukraine.

With the EU approval, the company would require animals to be put on a special diet and would pay producers premiums, he says.

Philip says there may also be an opportunity for producers to buy into the venture.

He notes the plant is conveniently located near a rail split between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal and is located close to the U.S. border. BF