Owners walk away from hog plant

Saying they are unable to repay a loan the government of P.E.I. has said it will recall by this coming Monday, owners of the regional hog processing plant in Charlottetown have handed the keys to the province.

The hog plant has been in trouble for months. In December, the owners, Natural Organic Food Group Inc., all but announced they were going into receivership but pulled away from handing over the plant at the last minute.

Last Friday, the Prince Edward Island government gave the owners 10 days to repay a $1.5 million loan. At a news conference Friday, the owners said that demand was the last straw.

The province plans to appoint a receiver to run the plant but did not specify for how long.

The fate of the plant has regional implications. Most hogs raised in the Maritimes are slaughtered at the plant, and hundreds of pigs are also brought in from Quebec.

NOFG took over the hog processing plant in the summer of 2006, in hopes that by focusing on new markets for organic pork and pork produced without antibiotics it might turn the long-struggling plant into a viable enterprise.

This most recent announcement comes at a difficult time for the hog industry. Many hog producers have gone out of business in recent months, either by choice or forced out by the banks. Even if the plant is able to keep functioning under the receiver, there are questions whether there will be enough producers in the region to make it viable.