WELLINGTON NORTH – Two Arthur-area meat processors will receive an influx of federal and provincial tax dollars for facility upgrades.
A total of $396,000 is being provided to three processors – two in Wellington North and another in Perth County – through the $3.5-billion Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership federal-provincial cost-sharing program.
Funding recipients, including Golden Valley Farms (Piller’s Fine Foods), Domingos Meat Packers and Atwood Heritage Processing, were announced by Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae on Feb. 28.
Piller’s will receive $150,000 and Domingos $96,000.
“These investments will ensure our local agriculture and food processing sector continues to grow,” Rae said.
Piller’s president Trent Hilpert told the Community News the funding will be used to convert the company’s Arthur Golden Valley Farms facility into a dried-cured meat operation.
It’s currently a facility for fully-cooked meat, but those operations are being swapped with a Waterloo location, where dried-cured meats are currently processed.
Hilpert said demand for dried-cured meats such as salami, involving crafted, air-dried and smoked meat, is increasing.
And the conversion, Hilpert said, will help the company respond to international market trends.
“A large portion of our growth in the future will come out of the international market … there’s only so many retailers in Canada,” he said.
The year-long conversion is already underway and is expected to be completed in March 2025.
“We’re very committed to the location; what we’re doing is transformational up there,” Hilpert said.
He wasn’t willing to speak about how employees would be affected by the changes.
The decision to move dried-cured processing to Wellington North is also a long-term strategy for the company.
Though the ongoing conversion is happening within Golden Valley’s current footprint, there’s more land available there for future expansion should the company’s bet on dried-cured meat pan out.
“It’s really critical for us to be able to expand … in Waterloo, it doesn’t allow for expansion because of where we’re located,” he explained.
The company also recently spent $19 million at its Brantford location, which processes pepperoni and meat sticks, to build a 27,000-square-foot addition.
Domingos Meat Packers did not respond to a request for comment.
