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HAY RIVER
Egg lovers across the NWT will soon be able to purchase locally-produced eggs thanks to the opening of Hay River's new egg grading facility on Oct. 26.

Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay loads eggs onto the chainer at the new egg grading facility in Hay River on Oct. 26. - Myles Dolphin/NNSL photo

The station, located in Hay River's industrial area, was officially launched after a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment David Ramsay and other representatives.

Ramsay said the facility, which was built and certified in accordance with the standards prescribed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), would play an important role in ensuring the highest quality of food is marketed, and would jump-start the re-emergence of the regulated egg-marketing industry in the NWT.

"This is a new beginning for egg production in the NWT," he said. "The ability to complete egg grading in the NWT will allow us to put NWT eggs on the shelves in NWT stores, and more importantly, from an economic point of view, to sell NWT eggs into the full wholesale, retail and food service sector in the south."

The eggs themselves will come from Hay River Poultry Farms Ltd., home to approximately 118,000 chickens. Purchased by John and Janet Penner in 2009, it is operated by general manager Glen Wallington and his son, Mike, the assistant manager. The Wallingtons added an additional 28,000 chickens to the farm in 2011, which produces well over 30 million eggs per year.

Penner put up most of the $280,000 needed to retrofit the station, which subsequently received the CFIA certification. The rest of the funding came from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

"We're pretty excited about being a part of this," Penner said, referring to being able to supply the local market with the local product.

"It's been a long road. This station goes through the same inspections as any grading station in Canada. Eventually we'd like to be able to supply the entire NWT."

Mike Wallington took care of the building's retrofit and said the entire structure needed to be upgraded.

"They had antiquated machines in here before," he said.

"We had to re-do the office space, knock down the old barn which was next to this building, clean out the equipment, pour in a brand new floor and build some new walls," he said.

The eggs will be sold under the Polar Egg brand, and sales and marketing consultant Kevin Wallington said he hopes to see the eggs in stores and restaurants by December.

"We've been working on this since January 2011, which was when John and I first discussed this," he said. "We've been working ever since on our certification and fixing the building. It's been a long process. It's nice that the minister was able to attend because we need to recognize the contributions of the government.

"They've been very supportive throughout the entire process. A lot of the times they don't get the credit they deserve."

Wallington added that finalizing the process meant another CFIA inspection, and waiting for their packaging to arrive.

More than a decade has passed since Gary Villetard and Frank Richardson operated the grading station in Hay River.

"We haven't had anything happen here in 10 years," Glen Wallington said. "It's exciting to see it all come together. It's a good thing for the North, especially with the emphasis on getting your food within a 100-mile radius. We're hoping to get some land in the future and go beyond just eggs."

Approximately 7.2 million eggs are consumed every year in the NWT, and the new facility can grade close to 1,500 dozen eggs per hour. According to Kevin Wallington, it would take 96 working days to provide enough eggs to satisfy the entire NWT population's appetite for eggs – an average of 14 dozen eggs per year, per person.

"That just goes to show how much capacity we have to expand out to the Whitehorse market, to northern Alberta and down south," he said.

He added that most of the company's eggs are used for industrial purposes – mayonnaise, bakeries, etc – but that the company wants to focus on table eggs.

Jackie Milne, president of the Territorial Farmers Association and chair of the NWT Egg Producers' Board, said the board was looking at how farmers could eventually acquire their own land and branch out into other types of eggs.

"We have a unique situation here in that farmers are co-operating together – it's hard to access land for agricultural purposes so they're sharing a barn – but perhaps one day they could go further and produce specialty eggs," she said. "They would probably do better in a separate place so we're looking at that."

She was pleased that some of the eggs would be donated to local entrepreneurs, including approximately six ladies who sell their baking at the Winter Market.

"This will help strengthen jobs and people will have one more local ingredient to add to their food," Milne said.

The new facility means the creation of three or four part-time jobs, and a possibility for more when Polar Eggs expands into other markets, Mike Wallington said.

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