Canada lamb sector wants to take a bigger share of the global market
Canada Gold Beef and Fresh Canada Meats have joined forces to change the industry by becoming a major player in the field, under the name North American Lamb Company, reports Alberta Farm Express magazine.
This is going to be one of the biggest sheep-farming operations in North America but the impact could be global, according to Gary Alexander, president and CEO of North American Lamb.
"The industry is really in a state of decline due to the lack of supply, the lack of consistency. Retailers want lamb 52 weeks a year and we want to be a solution provider", he said.
Lamb sector is dominated by small-scale operations that provide fresh lamb only in the time of spring. This is not the case for Fresh Canada Meats, though. "They lamb every day of the week. So we have a 24-7, 365-day-a-year lambing operation, which is pretty unique in the sheep business throughout the world", added Alexander.
Fresh Canada Meats (a subsidiary of Integrated Foods, a New Zealand lamb producer and processor) is the majority owner of Canada Sheep and Lamb Farms, a Manitoba operation with two breeding flocks totalling more than 35,000 head.
The Manitoba flocks are composed of the Rideau Arcott breed, a Canadian line developed for lambing out of season and prolific production. The animals will be raised to a weight of 70 to 80 pounds and then shipped to Canada Gold Beef facilities for finishing.
The next step for the North American Lamb Company is to expand the Manitoba operation to 50,000 head. From Gary Alexander's point o view, this is the perfect time to reshape the industry at a global level, considering that sheep production is declining in both Australia and New Zealand.
"There’s such a demand out there for lamb that isn’t being serviced that we can really rebuild this industry and make a viable consumer base using different geographies to overcome obstacles to seasonality", explained the company's CEO.
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