International improvements
On the international front, the Olymel La Fernandière plant in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, will double in size from 24,000 sq. ft. to more than 45,000 sq. ft. following a C$8.1 million ($6.5 million) investment by the company. With completion expected in December, the plant will use the extra space for both production and warehouse storage.
The plant, which Olymel purchased in June 2016, produces La Fernandière brand sausages, fresh and breakfast sausages for the Olymel and Lafleur brands, as well as for private label. The plant will also return to making meatloaf – a product that was previously discontinued. Following the completion of this project, the plant’s annual production capacity will increase from 14 million kg. (30.8 million lbs.) to 20 million kg. (44.1 million lbs.)
“By making this major investment, La Fernandière is giving itself the means to better meet the ever-increasing demand of the sausage market segment. This investment is necessary for us to increase our competitive position and better serve the needs of our clients all across Canada,” Olymel’s CEO Réjean Nadeau said in a statement.
The recent announcement of Miratorg Agro-Industrial Holding’s investment of over 200 billion rubles ($3.40 billion) in the construction of meat production facilities to process poultry, pork and beef using a vertically integrated business strategy means Russia will end its reliance on those imports.
The company refers to the pork production piece of the project as “pig production doubling.” The Oktyabrsky district of the Kursk region is slated to double the company’s pork production to 1 million metric tons (live weight) per year. The slaughter and processing facility, with an annual capacity of 4.5 million head, will create more than 5,000 jobs, the company said.
“This project is a constituent part of solving by Holding of the strategic task on doubling the pig breeding division capacity up to 7.7 million head per year,” said Viktor Linnik, Miratorg, president, during the groundbreaking in September. “Besides the meat packing plant, the grain company will be established, the production of compound feeds will be launched and new pig breeding complexes will be built in Kursk region,” he said.
Further processing operations are scheduled to begin by 2020, with slaughtering and deboning scheduled to begin in 2021.
