Olymel to close Quebec pork plant, nearly 1,000 people to lose their jobs

Olymel will close its factory in Vallée-Jonction, Que., a move that will leave 994 workers without a job. 

The factory, a slaughterhouse and meat processing plant 70 kilometres south of Quebec City, is one of four run by the company in Quebec.

Yanick Gervais, the company's CEO and president, described the closing of the 32-year-old plant as "inevitable," after what he called a difficult past two years for the company.

"The pandemic, the labour shortage, the rise of costs related to inflation, not to mention the closure of the Chinese market have really affected the fresh pork industry," said Gervais.

The decision to close the Vallée-Jonction plant was based on considerations about its operational capacity, he said, blaming the labour shortage in the area and the state of the plant's infrastructure.

According to Gervais, over 200 workers have left the plant in the past two years and the facility would have required a $40-million investment to keep it up and running.

"The market is pretty bad. It's a worldwide problem. All our costs are going up," said Gervais, adding it has become increasingly difficult to compete with companies in other countries.

Of the 994 people affected by the closure,  911 are union members and 83 are executives. The plant also employs 122 temporary foreign workers.

The plant will be closed over an eight-month period ending next December.  

The company said it will offer workers who have lost their jobs the possibility of relocating to other plants in the province.

But those who want to stay in the region, there is concern.

"It will be difficult for people here," said Martin Bédard, a worker who stood in front of the factory. "Aside from here, what place is there to work at?"

One former worker told Radio-Canada that she was frustrated with having to start over again at a new job after eight years at the plant, but, as a mother of young children, she was grateful her husband did not also work there like some other couples.  

Another worker told Radio-Canada she has worked there for 14 years and only learned about the closure through the media. 

The plant's union was also caught unawares.

Martin Maurice, president of the local union, said he too heard about possible closings through the media and was stunned to find out his own job in Vallée Jonction would likely disappear. 

But not everyone was surprised to hear the Vallée-Jonction plant would shut its doors.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, sees the closing of the plant as a logical choice given the company's options.  

According to Charlebois, the plant's meat processing facilities are outdated and would require an expensive upgrade if the company wanted to boost its business and stay competitive.  

"Olymel is a prisoner of its own facilities," he said. "It needs to recalibrate in order to better support its farmers, and I do believe that we will lose some hog farms in the province of Quebec."

Olymel says three of its other plants in the province, located in Yamachiche in the Mauricie region, Ange-Gardien in Montérégie and Saint-Esprit in Lanaudière, are more modern and efficient than the Vallée-Jonction plant.

Suffering in the region

The mayor of Vallée-Jonction, Patricia Drouin, said the impact would be felt throughout the Chaudière-Appalaches region. 

"It's enormous," said Drouin, adding that each Olymel job lost has a spinoff effect on about three other jobs in the region.

Yet, despite the announcement of the plant's closure, Vallée-Jonction and its partners are looking for ways to keep the jobs close by, the mayor said.

Luc Provençal, the CAQ MNA for Beauce-Nord, voiced concern about the future of the region's pocketbooks.

"For me, this is really one of the worst announcements in terms of economic impact in our region. It's really a wave that hits us, and it will require a lot of effort to get back up," he said.

The Éleveurs de porcs du Québec, an organization that advocates for Quebec pig breeders, pledged support to its members in the Beauce. 

"No farmer will be left behind," a spokesperson said in an email. "The priority of the organization is to ensure that there is minimal impact on their daily lives, and we will support those most affected."

The Quebec farmers' union, known by its French acronym, UPA, called for a "neutral and independent analysis" of the pork-processing industry from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. 

At the same time, the Chaudière-Appalaches chapter of the UPA called on elected officials to take stronger actions to protect farms from the rising cost of doing business.

According to a UPA survey conducted last month, half of the region's farmers report their businesses to have "deteriorated over the last three years and anticipate further deterioration over the next 12 months," it said.

In 2021, the Quebec government gave $150 million to the company.  That same year, a strike paralyzed the Vallée-Jonction factory for about four months.

In February, Olymel also announced the closure of its pork processing plants in Blainville and Laval. In November, it announced the closure of a factory in Saint-Hyacinthe.