Poultry processing goes mobile

For the last two years, Ben Glassen of Nanaimo’s Glassen Farms has processed his own chickens and turkeys for retail sale as well as undertaken custom slaughter of poultry and game birds for personal consumption by others.

But last week, he hit the road and began processing birds at neighbouring farms which he helped to obtain Farmgate Plus licences so he could set up shop on their properties.

With a Farmgate Plus licence, they’re able to host Glassen’s mobile abattoir on their properties.

“They need to produce 50% of the product that goes through the plant. And then the other 50% can be custom [work] from other small farms in the area,” Glassen says. “And so, my goal is to get these farms their licence, and then run my business to serve their farm and other farms in the area, including my farm.”

So far, Glassen has navigated three Nanaimo-area farms through the licensing process and Glassen hopes to add more, moving forward.

Glassen processes on Mondays and Fridays and farmers can now book slaughter dates on The Good Place Abattoir webpage.

“We’re starting at 100 birds a week and we would like to build to 200 or 300,” he says. “In the first week after announcing it, I have a dozen different farms that are booked in.”

His original trailer has been renovated to handle the new, broader mandate.

“This past spring, we renovated the interior of the trailer into a commercial kitchen space with washable walls, a sink, lights, electricity, all of the things,” Glassen says.

For a fee, Glassen will use vacuum bagging and custom labelling, so that customers are farmers market-ready with their products.

Ultimately, Glassen want to build a dedicated team to manage the trailer.

“My long-term goals are not necessarily to continue running and owning this thing,” he says. “I just need to be a customer. And so my goal, now that I’ve established it, is to build the systems and … hopefully find the right team that would take over this business and continue running it into the future.”

Beyond the poultry processing trailer, Glassen eyes building out a red meat version and perhaps even a brick-and-mortar retail butcher shop where farmers can get their animals processed and have a venue to sell their products to consumers.