North 49 Foods is the first new pork processing facility in Canada in more than a decade.

The 120,000 square foot, federally inspected sow plant is in the former XL Foods Beef plant in Moose Jaw. Neil Ketilson is North 49 Foods industry relations manager.

North 49 Foods is a subsidiary of Donald’s Fine Foods in British Columbia. Ketilson says there are some differences between hog and sow processing.

The plant is centrally located for Western Canadian hog producers and will reduce shipping costs and bolster biosecurity by not having to ship long distances to plants in the United States.

There will be a gradual phase-in of production with the first shipment of sows anticipated later this week. Initially, there will be 80 employees and that will rise to 200 when operating at full capacity in several months. The maximum processing capacity is approximately 225,000 sows annually.