Meat processing facility reopens under new ownership

The reopening of a small meat processing facility in Sonoma County gives beef and dairy producers in the North Bay a closer destination for their livestock, but the new owner of the plant made clear that he was ushering in a new era.

After suspending operations in February following a recall of its meat products, the former Rancho Feeding Corp. reopened its doors last week as Marin Sun Farms Petaluma.

The new owner, David Evans, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Marin Sun Farms, a gourmet meat company, said during a news conference last month that everything about the facility "has been rewritten, reinspected, reinvested in with a completely new mission and outlook on how to do business and how to bring product to Bay Area consumers."

The company did retain some of Rancho's former employees who have specialized skills in processing.

"It's not going to be the same slaughterhouse that we had here before, but I think it's going to be real helpful to the smaller guy," said Doug Beretta, a Sonoma County organic dairy farmer who sent some of his cows to the plant during its first week of operation.

The closure of Rancho Feeding left smaller-scale, niche-meat producers along the North Coast scrambling for alternative processors that were several hours away, leading to higher transportation costs. Dairy farmers in the region also lost an option for their culled dairy cows.

Unlike in the past, when culled animals could be dropped off and producers were paid for them, Beretta said he's now under contract with Marin Sun, which has new protocols.

Rather than operating as a procurer of meat for the wholesale market, as was much of Rancho's business, Evans characterized the Petaluma plant as one "of great significance to the California high-quality meat supply, the engine for market access for private-label livestock producers and marketing programs."

The goal is to process 100 beef cattle and 100 hogs a week to start, Evans said. Rancho used to process about 200 beef cattle and 100 hogs a week.

Jeff Bordes, director of sales and marketing for Marin Sun, said the plant is not at its target goal yet but is working to bring more ranchers on board. The facility is currently processing meat for Marin Sun's own label and for a few other ranchers, but the hope, he said, is for the majority of the volume to come from other ranchers. The company also will offer cut-and-wrap, marketing and distribution services, and will deliver orders to ranchers' customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Bordes said Marin Sun has been contacting about 200 ranchers who had relationships with Rancho and talking to them about the company's services and prices.

He acknowledged that while Marin Sun's current prices are a bit higher than what Rancho offered and that other processing facilities farther away may have lower prices, the company hopes accessibility of the Petaluma plant, its suite of services and level of quality will "encourage ranchers to come back to the facility."

One priority is to become organic certified by the end of the year, after which the company will work on expanding its services to process other species such as goats and sheep, Bordes said.

Evans addressed concerns from some ranchers who describe the company as a meat producer and competitor that now owns the North Bay's only meatpacking facility. Evans said his company needs the region's producers in order to supply enough volume to keep his plant running.

Sam Dolcini, a Marin County cattle rancher who has used the facility under Rancho, said he doesn't share others' concerns and described the Petaluma facility as "another important, local and convenient option" for ranchers.

Dairy farmer Beretta said Marin Sun will still need to be competitive with its pricing or producers will send their animals to other plants, albeit farther away.

"My feeling is that (Marin Sun) is a benefit to this county," he said. "It's one more option if you have the quality of cattle that (Evans) wants."

(Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)