A combination of factors, including high operating costs, a desire to relocate to a less urban setting and finally Friday's scheduled closure of Maple Leaf's primary pork processing plant in Winnipeg, prompted the Manitoba Pork Marketing Coop's decision to sell its assembly yard on Marion Street in Winnipeg and relocate.

Co-op CEO Perry Mohr estimates the closure will save approximately 700 thousand dollars per year which will be passed on to members in the form of lower marketing fees, hopefully in the range of 20 cents per head lower.

Perry Mohr-Manitoba Pork Marketing Cooperative

Currently we have our corporate offices and our primary assembly facility in the same location.

On a go forward basis I would suggest that our corporate offices, at least for the time being, will remain in Winnipeg.

We have partnered with Pete Quintaine and Son out in New Bothwell on assembly facility in that area that will look after the producers in the southeast corner.

We presently occupy the holding facility that's attached to Springhill Farms that was sold to Hytek last week.

We're hoping that we will be able to continue to occupy that facility and we're looking at at least one more location more central that would probably be just outside the perimeter in some area.

Mohr concedes a number of areas have been identified where the co-op will not be able to provide convenient assembly, specifically the southwest corner of the province and the Interlake.

He says, in those areas, the co-op will endeavor to arrange multiple pickups by larger trucking companies and accommodate assembly in that way.

He notes Maple Leaf has set a 70 head minimum delivery at its Brandon plant and the goal is to help producers coordinate deliveries to the packing plant as efficiently as possible.