Safe Food Increasing Costs For Beef Producers
CANADA - The cost of new measures to protect Canadian beef from contamination by bovine spongiform encephalopathy will be borne by Ontario cattle producers unless the province provides some financial help, said the manager of a packing plant near DurhamIt amounts to an average of 80 pounds for each animal slaughtered.
A $50,000 federal government grant helped offset the cost of building a $100,000 refrigerated storage facility where the cattle parts are kept until they can be transported to a pet food producer in Atwood, near Listowel.
Calhoun said he’s had to hire two more employees to meet the requirements of the new legislation.
The costs of handling, transporting and disposing the banned materials amounts to about $40 per animal, which is currently being paid for by the packers.
For West Grey Premium Beef, which processes about 200 cattle a week, it will amount to more than $416,000 a year. That’s well beyond the one per cent profit margin by which the company operates, Calhoun said.
Source: Owen Sound Sun Times