TORONTO — After being closed for more than a year, Ryding-Regency Meat packers will re-open.
Beef farmer Eugene Burgin, of Eusi Farms at Forest, will take over the plant and renamed it TruHarvest Meats. Expected to re-open on March 1, the abattoir aims to process 1,600 head per week, and will employ around 220 people, said Burgin in a press release. “Both the Burgin family and the management team at TruHarvest Meats are proud and excited to be starting such an important and vital venture at such a remarkable time,” he said.
It’s great news for beef farmers, who’ve been struggling with lack of processing capacity since Ryding-Regency closed, a situation only exacerbated by spiking local meat demand during a pandemic.
One of the few federally-licensed plants in the province, Ryding-Regency processed around 2,000 animals per week, as much as 10 per cent of Ontario’s beef. The abattoir ran into trouble in the fall of 2019 after numerous recalls of beef for e. Coli contamination, culminating in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency terminating its license. The CFIA concluded that the company had failed to implement effective control for potential food contaminants and posed a risk to people’s health.
