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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2017
Meadow Valley Meats eyes new slaughterhouse Proposed expansion will support local producers, regional retailers
by PETER MITHAM SURREY – Growing demand
for local meat is prompting a Fraser Valley abattoir to expand its operations, in turn opening markets for BC ranchers.
Chilliwack-based Meadow
Valley Meats is seeking permission to expand its Surrey processing plant to 30,000 square feet, a move that would boost its capacity to 100 cattle a day. The new plant would also seek federal certification, allowing it to ship product across provincial borders. “This is essentially a move to modernize and increase capacity somewhat,” says Chris Les, general manager of Meadow Valley Meats. He estimates the new plant would more than double Meadow Valley’s capacity. The existing facility was built in 1982, a time when most processors were small operations serving local markets. The intervening years have brought changes
to the meat industry, most notably following the discovery of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow”) in Canada in 2003 and stricter requirements on how offal and specified risk materials are handled. BC introduced new regulations in 2004 that upped the ante for plants considerably and federally inspected beef plants have been few and far between ever since. Today, approximately 90% of the BC beef herd goes to Alberta for slaughter. “There’s enough cattle
everyday leaving the province, whether it’s to Alberta or south to Washington, and being able to keep more of that for processing and for local consumption is a good thing for the province,” Les says. He anticipates being able
to serve producers not only in the Lower Mainland but those located on Vancouver Island as well as north into the Nicola, Thompson and
Okanagan valleys and even the southern Cariboo. This isn’t just good news for
producers in those regions, but also retailers scrambling to serve consumers who have shown greater interest in buying local products. “We see more demand for
locally grown and processed products, and from a diverse potential customer base in addition to our current markets,” says Les. “It’s not something that’s going away. The trend of local and sustainable food production is here and this plant would very much support southwestern BC animal agriculture.” While no retailers have
signed to purchase meat from the plant, which has yet to obtain the required approvals and an operating license, Les has fielded enough inquiries to give him confidence that Meadow Valley will find ample appetite among “larger retail chains ... looking for specifically Western Canadian suppliers that can’t be
satisfied out of the big Alberta plants.”
This includes animals raised in various forms of sustainable production systems, from grass-fed to organic and animal welfare-focused systems. Meadow Valley is working
with Bill Vanderkooi of Nutriva Group in Abbotsford to bring a new grass-fed beef brand to market, for example. The venture is starting with 75 animals and aiming for the first cuts to hit shelves in 2018. While the new abattoir
won’t be ready to handle those animals, Les said it’s the sort of venture the new plant will support. “We believe there’s good potential to ramp that up with the market awareness and capacity,” he said. Meadow Valley applied to
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the Agricultural Land Commission for an expanded non-farm use of its Surrey property at the end of July, and Les has been promised a 90-day turnaround. Once it receives approval, Surrey staff have to approve the project and issue a development permit. Finally, the federal government must issue the license that would permit interprovincial shipping. Still, the project has been several years in the works.
Meadow Valley sought permission in 2014 to expand its Chilliwack plant to increase its beef processing capacity, but withdrew the application in September 2015. While the initiative had the support of the BC Cattlemen’s Association and the BC Food Processors Association, some felt that the proposed location was inappropriate given the potential odours. By expanding on the Surrey
property, where processing is already happening, odour is less of a concern. Surrey councillors have also spoken approvingly of the project. Yet the regulations for opening a federally licensed processing plant can be “pretty onerous,” said Nova Woodbury, executive director of the BC Association of Abattoirs. “You have to have a full-
time HACCP [Hazard Assessment Critical Control Point] and QC [quality control] person on staff, and if you don’t process a lot, that’s a fair expense,” she said. Most beef processors in BC operate with a provincial license that’s less prescriptive and more outcome-based, she added. Woodbury applauds the
effort to boost processing capacity, noting that the only other federally inspected plants are in the north Okanagan. However, one only handles its own animals while the other, in Westwold, recently lost its license. Meanwhile, the process for Meadow Valley continues. “We could still be at least a couple of years away from an operating facility,” Les says.
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