Quebec meat packer Olymel and the workers at one of its hog slaughter plants have put in extra hours to process surplus hogs for the hungry, the company announced Friday.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (TUAC) local 1991-P working for Olymel at St-Esprit, about 60 km north of Montreal, pledged to extend the plant’s operating hours on the first three Saturdays in January.
The extra hours went to slaughter a “momentary surplus” of hogs created by the closing of the slaughter plant for Christmas and New Year’s Day, in keeping with what the company called “the (Quebec) government’s desire to encourage initiatives designed to reduce these surpluses during this period.”
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The donation of 60,000 kg of Olymel pork and poultry products, valued at around $500,000, is to be distributed to over 60 social assistance organizations through Moisson Lanaudière, the food aid agency for the region.
“We collect and distribute more than 1.5 million kg of foodstuffs every year, but we are desperately short of meat,” said agency president Michel Perreault in Olymel’s release.
The company said it made its first delivery to Moisson Lanaudière’s warehouse at nearby Joliette Friday morning.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard, commending the donation in a separate news release, reiterated that he’s working with the hog sector to develop more favourable conditions for the hog industry.
Quebec hog farmers called for action last fall when they faced a surplus of live animals and a corresponding drop in slaughter hog prices after Olymel closed two pork facilities in the province.
Lessard, in his release, noted ongoing sessions of talks between players in the pork industry led by longtime provincial civil servant Guy Coulombe, who represents Lessard and is to file a report with the minister on the talks’ outcome by March 3.
