Southwestern Ontario’s Conestoga Meat Packers has picked up a $2.3 million loan toward renovations to expand its product offerings.
Conestoga in the past eight years has expanded its slaughter capacity to 14,000 head per week from 3,000 at its packing plant at Breslau, just east of Kitchener.
The new renovations are meant to allow Conestoga to “process value-added products, capture new markets and generate new revenue,” the company said in a federal government release Friday.
“In this current global economy, Canada needs a strong, profitable red meat industry now more than ever,” local MP Harold Albrecht said in the release. “This investment will help Conestoga Meat Packers add value to their products and boost the bottom line of producers.”
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Such investment in packing and processing “benefits the entire value chain,” Albrecht said. “If packers are profitable and competitive, our farmers will benefit through stronger markets, and our economy will benefit through new jobs.”
Conestoga is owned and supplied by a co-op of about 150 hog farmers in the region, and supplies domestic and export customers in the retail and foodservice sectors.
The repayable federal funding comes from the government’s Slaughter Improvement Program, budgeted for $50 million to back meat packing and processing companies in carrying out business plans aimed at “reducing costs, increasing revenues and improving operations.”
