Governments to help farmers find abattoirs
The federal and provincial agriculture departments have come up with Farmer-Processor Connections Initiative to help farmers find abattoirs willing to take their livestock and poultry.
It will be led by Meat and Poultry Ontario and AgSights.
“This program will help relieve processing capacity challenges and supply chain disruptions, help food processing businesses use their full capacity and help meat and poultry farmers get their products to domestic and international markets faster,” the governments said in a joint news release.
But it’s not clear how the program can work for chickens because processing plants are governed by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario allocation program which works similar to the milk industry’s plant supply quotas.
Meat and Poultry Ontario and EIO Solutions are partnering to develop and implement a full suite of human resources tools to support meat and poultry processing plants in Ontario, with recruitment, retention, training, and policy development.
“These dedicated and tailormade resources will optimize food safety knowledge and culture in provincially licensed meat plants, while addressing ongoing labour challenges," the governments said.
This program supplements more than $14 million invested last year through two intakes for the Meat Processors Capacity Improvement Initiative.
