Western Canadian Pork Producers Scrambling Following Olymel Closure

Feb 18, 2021

Pork producers are scrambling following the temporary closure of one of the largest hog slaughter facilities in the country due to a major COVID-19 outbreak.

Tyler Fulton, Director of Risk Management at Hams Marketing Services, commented on the situation at the Olymel Plant in Red Deer, Alberta.

"It's early days but it's no doubt a tough blow. When you've got an industry that is set-up really with just-in-time delivery on their live animals, any time a significant plant goes down for an extended period of time, it really makes it difficult to help manage the flows," he said. "We're all hoping that first of all that employees will be healthy and be able to return soon and that the total impact on the industry is limited to hopefully just a few days or at most a few weeks."

Olymel has informed all hog suppliers of the Red Deer plant on the situation and has suspended all pending deliveries until further notice.

As for the markets, Fulton says they have really taken off over the last two or three weeks.

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