Canuck Beef Plant Cuts Slaughter

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Beef News
Canadian beef plant cuts slaughter, lays off workers

By Janie Gabbett on 4/22/2008 for Meatingplace.com




Troubled Canadian beef processor Atlantic Beef Products has cut back its weekly slaughter rate and laid off about one-third of its staff in an attempt to control costs, according to Canada's CBC News.

The plant, located in Albany, Prince Edward Island, has reduced its weekly slaughter to 280 cattle from more than 400 and laid off about 30 of its roughly 90 employees to stem losses that had reached about $250,000 a month.

In December 2007 the Canadian government granted the processor $12 million in government assistance in a bid to keep the only federally inspected beef processing facility in the Maritimes open. (See Canadian beef plant receives $12 million to stay open on Meatingplace.com, December 10, 2007.) Atlantic Beef is owned by 200 beef producers.

Many Maritime farmers have been shipping cattle to the United States, where they can get higher returns for certain grades of beef and for older cull cattle, according the CBC report.