North 49 Foods Ltd. has opened its new Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, pork production facility — the first new pork processing facility to open in Canada in more than a decade — according to local news reports.
The fully renovated, state-of-the-art North 49 Foods plant formerly was a JBS/XL Foods beef plant, and it is expected to give the pork industry in western Canada a needed boost. Without this facility, Canadian-raised hogs were being shipped to the U.S. for processing.
The plant will employ approximately 80 employees at first, with about 200 workers expected once the plant reaches full capacity. Parent company Donald’s Fine Foods also owns the Thunder Creek Pork plant in Moose Jaw — a facility it acquired in 2010 that employs around 275 workers.
For the project, the company received a $5 million interest-free loan from the PrairiesCanada, and the plant will feature a special cull line capable of handling emergency outbreaks of infectious disease in the hog population — an investment made possible by a $1 million contribution by the provincial government and Sask Pork.
It is estimated that North 49 Foods will be able to process 225,000 sows annually at capacity.
