Canada’s Lakeside Packers is to increase capacity at its Canadian plant in an effort to reduce the oversupply of cattle. The chief executive of Tyson Foods, which owns Lakeside, announced that the Alberta plant plans to begin increasing its beef slaughter capacity in mid-June. The change is the result of a $17 million plant expansion project, which has been underway since last autumn. The Lakeside plant has been operating at maximum capacity for much of the past year and a half because of record-large Canadian cattle supplies.
"Our investment in this project will help address the backlog of cattle caused by the continued closure of the US border," said John Tyson, chairman and chief executive officer of Tyson Foods, who visited the Lakeside plant Wednesday. "It also reflects our long-term commitment to the Alberta beef industry, which we fully expect to rebound from the market challenges of the past two years."
The changes will increase Lakeside's beef slaughter capacity from approximately 3,800 cattle per day to 4,700. While some aspects of the project will not be finished until autumn, enough have been completed that plant officials expect to begin gradually increasing production next month.
