The Cloverdale Growers’ Alliance Cooperative, a group of approximately 60 hog farmers in North Dakota, Montana and Minnesota plans to purchase a majority interest in Cloverdale Foods’ Minot, ND plant.
Cloverdale will remain a minority partner and continue managing the plant which produces deli meats and other products, including the official hot dog for sale at Seattle Mariners baseball games in Safeco Field. The 50 full-time employees will keep their jobs.
The grower group currently supplies about 60,000 hogs a year to the Minot plant and hopes to gain enough members to have the capacity for 150,000 hogs annually. The owners hope the new arrangement will guarantee farmers a market and provide them better returns for their hogs while creating a more reliable hog supply and reducing procurement costs for Cloverdale.
Source:
Associated Press, January 22, 2008