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Olymel has notified pork producers in Ontario who ship to its processing plants in Quebec that it intends to exercise the force majeure clause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry sources.

By invoking the clause, the company would no longer be required to purchase market hogs under the terms of the contracts it has with producers.

Olymel has not responded to requests for comment or further information.

The company shut down operations at its plant in Yamachiche, Que., for 14 days, beginning March 29, after nine employees at the facility tested positive for COVID-19. The temporary closure affects approximately 1,000 employees.

Olymel is a subsidiary of Sollio (formerly La Coop federee) and employs over 10,000 people at more than a dozen hog and poultry processing facilities, most of which are in Quebec. The company also has a hog processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta.

Pork producers in Ontario normally ship around 20,000 pigs into Quebec each week, according to Ontario Pork. A source says Olymel says it wants to continue to purchase Ontario hogs, but at a reduced volume and for the “duration of the pandemic.”

A hearing is also set for Monday, April 6th. If successful, Olymel will be released from its obligation requiring it to take Quebec hogs ahead of those from other provinces.

More to come…

Related: Olymel shuts down Quebec plant for 14 days, as staff test positive for COVID-19

Getting essential supplies to destinations is critical during the COVID-19. Truck drivers have been thrust into the spotlight as road transport is one of the essential services as outlined by governments

In response to COVID-19, the Government of Saskatchewan is temporarily modifying hours of service regulations for commercial truck drivers. One of the listed categories under the exemption is the transportation of food, paper products, and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centres or stores.

Some Saskatchewan farmers may read that release and think that that agricultural goods would be classified under “food” but that is not the case.

According to Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, routine commercial deliveries of livestock and grain products are not included under this hours of service exemption. This exemption is intended to apply only to “transportation by carriers providing direct assistance to emergency relief efforts during the response to COVID-19.” The spokesperson continued, “the intention was to apply the exemption narrowly but to ensure consistency across North America and we continue to work with our federal and provincial counterparts to ensure consistency in Canada and south of the border.”

As always, trucks registered as “Class F” — those with farm plates — are exempt from hours of service regulations when traveling within the province.

Each province is feeling the incredible economic hit from COVID-19, but Alberta — with its oil and gas-based economy — may be harder hit than some, as the price of oil has plummeted. There are many Albertans out of work, and many Alberta farm and agriculture businesses looking to fill a gap that seasonal workers may be unable to fill this summer, due to travel restrictions.

The Province of Alberta is currently looking at implementing a job matching program to match people with certain skill sets to potential jobs within the agricultural and food supply chain.

Minister of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Devin Dreeshen, says the government is currently identifying the skills of unemployed Albertans right now.

“We are working with industry to identify what are the skills, and the needs of skills that they have with this high unemployment rate that’s going on right now due to COVID-19. So we’re trying to match the jobs supply with the job’s demand.”

Dreeshan says the province will be rolling out a job matching program soon, because “whether you wash dishes for a restaurant, washing potatoes isn’t much different,” adding, “We want to make sure that unemployed Albertans have the opportunity to be to identify places they could be working in our ag and food supply chain.”

More details to come as the program develops.

The packing industry is crucial to the entire food value chain in agriculture and, with that, comes the importance of government inspectors. The question is, what happens if these inspectors contract COVID-19 or if they aren’t able to work due to the risk of contracting the virus?

The issue was highlighted with the partial closure of Harmony Beef, at Balzac, Alta.

The federal and Alberta governments announced on Wednesday (April 1) that to ensure the continuous operation of Alberta’s food supply chain, the provincial government is partnering with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to increase food inspector capacity.

Minister of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Devin Dreeshen, says there are many moving parts to our supply chain, and the province is working closely with major food processors to ensure the capacity is met.

“We are training up our provincial meat inspectors to be able to work not only in our provincial abattoirs and provincial facilities, but also federal CFIA export-orientated facilities. This is so we wouldn’t see a disruption due to any inspector issues, or not having enough inspectors if some of them contract COVID-19. So we are doing a lot of preparatory work for anticipating the worst, because we want to make sure that our vital food supply chain remains intact,” he says.

The province says training will begin soon, which will allow provincial meat inspectors to be redeployed into high-priority federally-licensed plants in Alberta as needed.

Dreeshen says he gives the credit of this plan to the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Marie-Claude Bibeau.

“It’s something I commend the federal agriculture minister and the CFIA president for, working with the province of Alberta on a program, in which we can quickly train up our provincial meat inspectors to be able to fill the gaps going forward in federally registered CFIA plants. ”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney agrees that it is vital to keep all aspects of the food supply chain operating. He was quoted on March 27th after the Harmony Beef closure, saying “We see a huge increase in demand for those products, and we can’t have the CFIA essentially impairing our entire livestock industry by people refusing to go on the job,” while reiterating the importance of having people provincially trained to help fill the gaps.

“By working together, our governments have ensured we have a COVID-19 contingency plan for inspection services,” says Bibeau.

Listen to the conversation between Ag Minister Devin Dreeshen and RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney, below: