More than 95% Canada’s beef comes from 3 processing plants. Two of them have COVID-19 outbreaks

OTTAWA-The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the risk of relying on a few industrial slaughterhouses for a huge portion of Canada's beef supply, according to food experts and a national farmers' union.

More than 95 per cent of Canada's beef production comes from just three processing plants, the National Farmers Union says. Two of them have been hit by COVID-19 outbreaks, including a massive plant in Alberta that shut down Monday with no estimated date of return.

Ian Robson, a board member with the union who raises cattle on his farm in Deleau, Man., said this could have a major impact. When a big processor shuts down, shock waves roll through the beef supply chain that increase consumer prices and force ranchers to take losses because they can't sell cattle, he said.

"You can't eat the beef until it's killed and processed," Robson said. "And if the killing capacity is the limiting pinch point, it causes a problem both for people who want to eat and for us who want to raise and sell the product."

The situation also puts employees under pressure as large processors are declared an essential service during the pandemic, said Paul Meinema, national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers that represents 40,000 workers in the food processing sector.

"We are in unprecedented times and our members are very dedicated," he said. "It certainly is causing stress for them as individuals."

Experts who have spoken to the Star in recent days - along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday - have stressed that Canada's food supply is stable, even if disruptions drive up prices as millions of people turn to government aid to make ends meet.

But the concentration of production has been a recurring question for the beef industry as smaller processing plants have been replaced by industrial slaughterhouses in recent years, said Queen's University professor Elaine Power. According to the National Farmers Union, there were 119 federally inspected beef processors in Canada in 1988; now there are 20.

"People have been sounding the alarm on it for a while, but no one pays any attention unless there's a problem," said Power. "It works for big multinational corporations because they make lots of profit, but there's a price.

"The price right now is the security of the food supply."

Dalhousie University professor Sylvain Charlebois, director of the school's Agri-Food Analytics Lab, said concentration of production poses a risk, but the realities of the beef industry simply make it difficult for smaller players to compete. Larger companies can achieve greater production efficiencies in a high-cost sector, buy cattle from ranchers for better prices, and meet rigorous inspection and quality regulations, he said.

Canada could change regulations to encourage regional processors, but that would increase prices, Charlebois said.

"The architecture of the industry is a product of what we want as consumers: we want cheap food," he said.

While the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports there is no evidence food is a "likely" source of transmission for the virus, outbreaks of the disease have forced some meat processing plants to slow production or shut down after workers contracted COVID-19.

Two pork plants in Quebec temporarily shuttered to deal with outbreaks this month, and on Monday, the Cargill facility in High River, Alta. suspended operations with no estimated date of resumption. Another major beef producer in Brooks, Alta., is facing an outbreak with more than 60 confirmed infections. And a chicken processor in British Columbia also shut down Tuesday after Vancouver Coastal Health reported 28 workers there contracted the virus.

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga