$1M grant to fund community abattoir in Merritt a 'ray of light,' say local ranchers - Action News
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British Columbia

$1M grant to fund community abattoir in Merritt a 'ray of light,' say local ranchers

On Friday, the B.C. government announced a $1 million grant for the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association to build a licensed community abattoir that provides meat processing and cut-and-wrap services to local farmers.

Province says funding part of plan to rebuild Merritt's agricultural industry after fire, floods of 2021

Julia Smith, executive director of Small-Scale Meat Producers Association, pictured at her Blue Sky Ranch in Merritt, B.C. Smith says the abattoir will help save local farmers transportation expenses to ship their livestock to other regions for slaughtering. (Submitted by Julia Smith)

The province's latest initiative to help builda slaughterhouse in Merritt, B.C. would meanfresher meat supply for local customers and more profit going to local farmers, say ranchers in the Nicola Valley region.

On Friday, the province announced a rural development grant of $1 million to the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association for establishing a community abattoir, which will be government-licensed and inspected by public health authorities, to provide meat processing and cut-and-wrap services to local ranchers.

There currently isn't a licensed abattoir in Merritt. Farmers and ranchers have to send their livestock to licensed abattoirs outside of the municipality, with the nearest one located in Kamloops, about 95 kilometres away.

The association's executive director,Julia Smith, who also owns Blue Sky Ranch in Merritt, says the province's announcement is good news for fellow ranchers in the area.

"[The abattoir] means we're going to be able to pivot our businesses in a much more profitable direction and to be able to supply meat to our community, at a time when people are starting to take that sort of thing really seriously," Smith said.

Pig carcasses and sausages at a Merritt, B.C. farm. The province says funding a new abattoir in Merritt is part of a plan to rebuild the municipality's agricultural industry. (Submitted by Julia Smith)

Rebuilding agriculture ravaged by fires and floods

The province says the funding is part of aplan to rebuild the agricultural industry in the municipality, which was devastated by wildfire and floods last year.

Rhonda MacDonald, who owns Bar FX Ranch located between Highway 8 and the Nicola River, says she lost 30 per cent of her cattle when most of her farm property was washed awayby flooding last November. She says shehas slowly beenreturning to full production since.

MacDonald says an abattoir in Merritt would bring a huge benefit to local customers, as they will know where the meat is from and be able to purchase them at lower prices.

Merritt rancher Rhonda MacDonald says the community abattoir will also provide business growth opportunities for farmers like her, whose farms were affected by fires and floods in the region last year. (Submitted by Rhonda MacDonald)

It also means business growth opportunities, she says, forher and other farmers in the Nicola Valley region who are recovering from the natural disasters.

"I'm not going to lie there have been times since the fires and the floods where we just thought about throwing in the towel," she said.

"It is a ray of light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel it's giving us hope, it's giving us a goal to work towards."

Ensuring food security

In 2020, the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture conducted a two-month consultation with meat producers, abattoirs, local governments and health authorities on policy options to boost meat production and processing in rural communities, including granting licences to mobile abattoirs to improve service for small-scale meat producers.

Mark Roth, based in McBride, B.C., is buildinga mobile abattoir that he expects will be up and runningthis fall, travelling acrossthe Robson Valley region to slaughter and process animals on-site for ranchers, who are then able to sell the meat right away to customers.

Mark Roth, pictured building his mobile abattoir in McBride, B.C., says having a slaughterhouse nearby would ensure food security for local communities amid supply chain issues. (Submitted by Mark Roth)

Roth says having an abattoir nearby ensures food security for local communities.

"With the pandemic and everything, people have really been noticing supply chain issues so many of us live with close access to beef, yet we're buying it from Alberta or from anywhere else," he said.

"It makes sense to get our local animals to the local people who want to eat [them]."

With files from Brady Strachan