By Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Private Canadian
pork producer duBreton said on Thursday it plans to raise
300,000 additional pigs during the next three years without
housing them in crates, as it seeks premium prices from food
stores and restaurants for meat raised humanely.
Larger Canadian rivals Olymel LP and Maple Leaf Foods Inc
MFI.TO are already converting all of their own barns to
crate-free, or open-housing, by 2022 and 2017 respectively,
company spokesmen said.
Conventional farms raise sows in crates that measure two
feet by seven feet (0.6 m by 2.1 m), preventing them from
turning around. Raising pigs crate-free means they can roam in a
communal environment.
Other parts of the food-production chain are also under
pressure from consumers to raise animals more humanely.
McDonalds Corp MCD.N pledged this month to phase out eggs laid
by caged hens within a decade.
It costs 50 percent more to raise pigs without crates, but
producers command higher prices to more than make up for it,
duBreton President Vincent Breton said in an interview.
He said duBreton guarantees the farms from which it buys
crate-free hogs their cost of production plus a margin.
"We think it is important for the smaller farm to have a
niche to survive," he said. "It brings the lows of the market
out of the equation."
The increase in crate-free production will cost duBreton
C$30 million ($22.49 million). Its customers include grocers
Whole Foods Market Inc WFM.O and Empire Co Ltd's EMPa.TO
Sobeys, as well as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) CMG.N .
The Quebec-based company currently slaughters about 1
million pigs per year at Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec. Breton
declined to say how many of those pigs currently come from
crate-free farms.
($1 = 1.3340 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by Marguerita Choy)