Meat plant proposal considered

June 20, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - The state-owned slaughterhouse in Palmer could soon be on its way to private ownership.

Earlier this month, the state received a single bid to buy Mt. McKinley Meat and Sausage Plant Co. On Monday, the state Board of Agriculture and Conservation will vote whether to approve the offer.

Agriculture Division Director Larry DeVilbiss was tight-lipped about the bid, citing confidentiality rules. He did indicate, however, that the current proposal looked promising.

&#8220I think everyone will be happy with the deal,” he said Monday. If so, the bid might signal a change for the slaughterhouse industry in Alaska.

Since 1987, the state has operated MMM&S, butchering roughly 1,200 animals a year for dairy farmers, ranchers, 4-H participants and other clients.

The facility, though, is a consistent money-loser, and several attempts to sell the plant as an active slaughterhouse have failed.

Earlier this year, the Board of Agriculture voted unanimously to authorize the state to sell the property. If no acceptable bids were received to run the plant as a slaughterhouse, then the state was free to sell the property &#8220as is, where is” without any restriction on usage.

If the current bid works out, DeVilbiss said he thinks the plant stands a much better chance of making it financially as a private venture. Under state ownership, the slaughterhouse couldn't tap into retail markets without competing with the private sector, DeVilbiss explained.

By contrast, a private owner could market and sell Alaska-grown meat, while continuing to butcher animals for the wholesale market.

&#8220The biggest significance is that this could start to build the retail beef outlet instead of just filling the wholesale market,” DeVilbiss explained. &#8220That is something the state could not get into, but that is where the higher value is for producers.”

Terms of the bid won't be public unless the deal is approved next week. Any bidder, however, had to agree to run the plant as a slaughterhouse for at least three years. After that, it is unclear whether local growers would continue to have a feasible location to slaughter animals.

Mat-Su farmers and 4-H officials have expressed concern about how long a private owner would operate the slaughterhouse.

Currently, MMM&S annually butchers nonproducing dairy cows, between 50 and 75 4-H animals, and hundreds of animals for wholesale. Several local agricultural producers, including Point MacKenzie dairy farmer Wayne Brost and 4-H

officials, expressed concern

that the viability of their operations depends on a local slaughterhouse.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.