Farmers raising cervids such as deer, elk, caribou, moose and reindeer are expected to benefit from federal backing for national traceability and on-farm food safety systems.
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on Thursday pledged $673,500 for development of a national traceability system, through gathering, storing and analyzing traceability data on farmed cervids.
Ritz, speaking in Lloydminster, Alta., also announced $361,400 to help cervid producers build a national, HACCP (hazard analysis of critical control points)-based cervid on-farm food safety system.
The federal funds, paid out through the Canadian Integrated Food Safety Initiative (CIFSI), will go to the Canadian Cervid Alliance, a non-profit group based at Minnedosa, Man.
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The group represents Canadian cervid producers at the national level, including directors from eight provincial-level elk and deer producer groups in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Manitoba and Ontario.
“Market access is critical for the farmed deer and elk industry in Canada,” said Randy Wehrkamp, president of the Canadian Cervid Alliance and an elk breeder from Gronlid, Sask., about 100 km east of Prince Albert.
The two projects, he said, “will provide enhanced quality assurances and increased marketability for our antler and meat products to consumers in Canada and in international markets.”
CIFSI funding flows through the federal/provincial Growing Forward ag funding policy framework, to support work on food safety systems and national-level traceability.
