Northwest Premium Meat Co-op Hopeful to Restart

The fate of the Northwest Premium Meat Co-op was unknown, after the abattoir was forced to shut down in April for financial restructuring. The board of directors was also exploring ways to see if the operation could become viable again. A fundraising deadline for $100,000 was set for the end of June. That money would go a long way towards the restart of the abattoir and meat processing facility. Co-op Board Chair Paul Davidson explains, where the finances currently sit after the deadline passed Tuesday. "Roughly speaking with the assistance that Northern Development Initiative and the credit union has provided, plus the cash money that we've got from our producers and consumers locally and local business, we've raised in the ballpark of our hundred-thousand dollar goal that we were aiming for. It's not all cash, and some of it is grant assistance from banks and so on, but, I think we can say that we got a package of money together that can make us say now we can look at starting up again this fall."

Davidson says they're hoping to have the coop up and running in august or September in order to produce for the fall run.  The benefits of having a local abattoir are plentiful; "Number one, it saves you the cost of shipping your cattle say all the way to Alberta, to feed lots out there. And the cost of bringing meat back for the local consumer, there's a fuel cost in shipping product both ways. There's the benefit that the local farmers can arrange their own customers and they can sell locally inspected quality meat products to their local consumers and friends and ask for a fair price for their product there, and perhaps bring in a little higher return. There's the benefit of up to 15 local jobs in the community, so there's that's benefit."

Despite suffering from financial challenges in their first go around, the board of directors is optimistic things will be better this time; "if we can get up and running, it's all positive for farmers, consumers local business. It's an economic stimulus for every body in the Valley and throughout the Northwest. We have members from Burns Lake and Vanderhoof all the way to Terrace and the Queen Charlotte Islands, so it's a whole northwest region project and we're really hopeful that this will move ahead."