PROVINCE INVESTS $3.3 MILLION IN MEAT PROCESSING

Meat processors in Saskatchewan received a big boost today from the provincial government's Meat Processing Strategy.

Agriculture and Food Minister Mark Wartman announced a $3.3 million investment to create a toll processing facility at the Thomson Meats Ltd. plant in Melfort. Today's announcement is the third of three initiatives outlined within the $37.3 million Meat Processing Strategy unveiled in June 2005.

"Toll processing will enable our agriculture industry to process more of what we produce in the province," Wartman said. "It has the potential to enable the development of new meat products for specialized or niche markets and thereby create new businesses and jobs for rural Saskatchewan."

Toll processing services have been identified by the industry as a necessity to allow Saskatchewan food processors to bridge the gap between product development, commercial scale production and building market share. It essentially allows a new or expanding company to have its product custom-produced in a federally-inspected facility until it can afford to build a plant of its own.

"Toll processing complements the work of the Food Industry Development Centre," Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Board Chair Amos Skinner said. "At the Food Centre, we do product development and help companies test their product in the marketplace. Thomson Meats will allow companies to do commercial-scale production and marketing to grow their business."

"The capability that is being set up with this announcement is very important to help build our industry," Canadian Prairie Lamb President Gord Schroeder said. "We are encouraged by the support being provided by the province to the value-added processing we do here in Saskatchewan."

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For More Information, Contact:

Scott Brown Agriculture and Food Regina Phone: (306) 787-4031 Cell: (306) 536-3851