Maple Leaf Foods Buys Major Hog Operations To Feed Brandon Flagship Plant

“This little piggie went to Iowa but this little piggie is about to stay home and head to Brandon” is the new nursery rhyme for Maple Leaf Foods Brandon, Manitoba plant as the meat giant announced a major purchase move in the Saskatchewan hog market.

Maple Leaf Foods announced the purchase of four hog operations from central Saskatchewan located B & T Polar Park Farms. The purchase will add annually up to an additional 140,000 hogs to Maple Leaf’s Brandon slaughter facility which has been running under capacity.

Previously Polar Park farms marketed their weanlings into the US -Iowa - farm market but the weanlings will now be raised on Manitoba farms into the Maple Leaf Foods Brandon supply chain.

Maple Leaf will acquire four of Polar Park’s 11 hog operations.

The acquisition will enhance Maple Leaf Foods' overall pig supply and substantially increase its pig production capacity in the province.

Maple Leaf will acquire two farrowing (where piglets are born) and two farms where hogs are raised to put on weight.

"This purchase offers us ready access to some of the healthiest hogs in Saskatchewan that will allow us to enhance our deliveries of high-quality pork to customers in Canada and Asia," Michael Detlefsen, President of the Maple Leaf Foods Pork Complex said in a statement. "Bringing these barns into Maple Leaf Foods aligns with our strategy to pursue growth both domestically and abroad."

No details were released as to how much Maple Leaf paid for the facilities but the company pledged to invest up to $27 million into the four farms over time.

It is unknown what impact - if any - the purchase might have on other pork slaughtering facilities in Western Canada including Thunder Creek Pork’s operations as Maple Leaf Foods seeks to expand their domestic and export slaughtered hog market and potentially increase employment to meet the increased hog availability.

Of the ten federally inspected pork processing plants in Western Canada Maple Leaf’s Brando facility is the largest.

At the present time Moose Jaw’s Thunder Creek Pork is in the process of upgrading and expanding the former XL Beef plant converting it from a cow processing to a cull sow processing facility.

The deal is expected to be finalized in 2022.