Food packer keeps it local
Renewed focus on Nunavut paying dividends for processing plant
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, April 23 2014
RANKIN INLET/KIVALLIQ
Business has picked up since Kivalliq Arctic Foods in Rankin Inlet began focusing almost solely on Nunavut with its product line, said the plant's general manager.
General manager Todd Johnson displays one of the family packs helping Kivalliq Arctic Foods boost its sales in Rankin Inlet this past week. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo |
Todd Johnson said the company is selling almost all its product in Nunavut, and what leaves the territory is mostly headed to places like Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in Ottawa or the Kivalliq Inuit Centre in Winnipeg.
He said the more product sold within Nunavut, or to places with strong ties to the territory, the better.
"The more we focus on Nunavut, the more volume we're delivering on an annual basis," said Johnson.
"We're buying and developing muskox now, which is something we weren't doing this past year.
"That's a wonderful development to me, because it allows us to offer more support to communities with muskox in their areas.
"The muskox product has really taken off, and we've sold all we processed every time."
Johnson said he keeps an open mind and listens to his staff's opinion on the products Kivalliq Arctic Foods should be making, which often turn out to be what people want.
He said the company's making stew cubes, mikku (dry caribou cubes) and dry fish.
"These are products traditionally consumed in Nunavut and they're proving to still be what people want.
"Concentrating our efforts on the Nunavut market has been 100 per cent, without question, the right move for us.
"We change our family packs depending on product availability, but, when we are offering them, we try to include both meat and fish.
"The most popular family packs seem to be the ones containing any caribou product or traditional product such as pipsi (dried fish)."
Kivalliq Arctic Foods held an appreciation day in Whale Cove this past year.
Johnson said the company intends to do something comparable for Whale again this year.
But, he said, it won't be the only special day it holds during the summer.
"We want to include our home-base area here in Rankin, and an announcement will be coming this summer about our plans," he said.
"We're focused on local benefit, as opposed to outside-the-territory benefit.
"We had five full-time employees when I came in June of 2012 and now we have nine.
"So we're moving in the right direction."
