Producer Marc-Antoine Paquet, who started a broiler farm in 2021 in Sainte-Florence, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, was the first and is still the only commercial chicken breeder in his region. He must go through another province to have his birds slaughtered, due to lack of an accessible slaughterhouse nearby.
It was his buyer, Olymel, who directed Mr. Paquet’s production towards Sunnymel, an Olymel partner transformer located in Clair, New Brunswick. “For me, it is more advantageous for my birds to travel 280 km to Sunnymel than 700 km to go to the Olymel slaughterhouse in Saint-Hyacinthe,” emphasizes Mr. Paquet. For animal welfare, the less traveling the better. This is the reality of our region. If there was a place capable of producing my volumes in the neighboring village, that’s where I would go. »
The smallest poultry breeders in the east of the province must transport their birds to the Abattoir R. Pouliot et Fils, in Saint-Henri, in Chaudière-Appalaches. This multi-species slaughterhouse does not, however, slaughter aquatic birds such as ducks and geese. Producers of these species must turn to the Ferme Orléans slaughterhouse, on Île d’Orléans, says Yan Gosselin, director of producer services and regional development for the Federation of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA). ) of Bas-Saint-Laurent. This lack of access to local slaughtering services harms the development of this type of breeding in the region, whether on a small scale or on a commercial scale, he observes.
“It’s the chicken-and-egg question: are there not many poultry farms because the slaughterhouses are too far away, or are there no there are no slaughterhouses because there are not enough farms to supply them? » asks Mr. Gosselin.
A mobile slaughterhouse would be unprofitable
The latter led a study on the feasibility of a mobile slaughterhouse project for the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Chaudière-Appalaches regions in order to fill this lack of service. The conclusions, however, showed that this type of installation would be neither optimal, since it does not allow rapid or profitable slaughter. “If the project is not supported by public funds, it is estimated that it would generate a deficit of $300,000 per year, on a recurring basis,” he specifies in an interview with Earth.