Beef plant bright light for P.E.I. manufacturing in March

Taken as a whole, P.E.I. manufacturers fared relatively well in March, according to Statistics Canada.

StatCan released manufacturing sales numbers for March on Thursday, the first official release on the post-pandemic performance of that industry.

With a 5.8 per cent drop in sales from February to March, P.E.I.'s manufacturers were ahead of the national trend of a 9.2 per cent fall. It ranked fifth in performance among the provinces, behind Manitoba, Nova Scotia, B.C. and Quebec.

It was a very mixed picture for Island manufacturers, however, depending on the sub-sector. Manufacturers of durable goods, such as machinery, saw sales drop 15.8 per cent.

Non-durable goods manufacturers, in contrast, saw a 0.9 per cent increase. That growth was even better for food processors, which makes up about 70 per cent of non-durable goods sales for P.E.I. That sub-sector was up 4.4 per cent.

That may be, in part, driven by Atlantic Beef Products in Borden-Carleton, which has been registering strong sales.

An outbreak of COVID-19 shut down a major meat-packing plant in Alberta, and Atlantic Beef Products was in a position to step in to fill the hole in the market.

"Our ground beef products have been going all the way out to Calgary, and find themselves all the way out in Victoria and Manitoba and other places," said company president Russ Mallard.

"We've been able to help out kind of on a national basis, help with the shortfall that's been created due to plants in the West not being able to operate normally. So we're pretty proud of that."

The pandemic has created challenges at the plant. Physical distancing measures are in place, including expansions to the locker room and lunch room.

And Mallard said the plant is continuing to learn and adopt new measures as problems emerge at other plants across the continent.

Measures have been put in place to reduce the chance of disease spreading while employees are carpooling. Plant employees have also been asked if they live with someone who works in the health care sector.

"We've implemented measures to ask people to voluntarily go in for COVID-19 testing on a regular basis, with everybody else who lives with them at their home," Mallard said.

While potato processing has suffered from the disappearance of restaurant sales, retail has picked up that slack for Atlantic Beef Products, but Mallard said he will be glad when restaurants reopen.

"Food service is a big part of who we are here at Atlantic Beef," he said.

"We're really looking forward to our restaurant partners being able to get back and serving customers, and that'll be a big event for us."

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