With a growing demand for lamb across the country, an Innisfail food processor is ensuring they're ready for further growth opportunities in the years to come.With a growing demand for lamb across the country, an Innisfail food processor is ensuring they're ready for further growth opportunities in the years to come.

Sungold Specialty Meats is Canada's largest federal lamb processor; they've been in business since 1974 and currently employ a staff of around 65.

They are among a handful of food processors in central Alberta that are receiving federal and provincial grant dollars through Growing Forward 2.

General Manager Miles Kliner explains how they're using those funds.

“We introduced a new value added program called ‘Lamb Tonight’ so burgers, sausages, meatballs, pre-seasoned, all ready to go, so we used some of that money for market development.  We used money for upgrading our refrigeration system here to be able to handle increased growth and volume and some other process improvements targeting increased efficiency and productivity so we can handle growth”.

Kliner says the biggest challenge their company faces is having enough lamb to meet the demand.

“That’s because of the changing ethnicity of our population and many of those ethnic cultures lamb is a mainstay protein so they want lamb.  The other thing we’re finding is millennial; a lot of millennials are more adventuresome, they want to try new things, lamb is particularly nutritious, and the lamb we raise today is a different taste profile than the lamb I ate as a kid, and it’s something we’re seeing a shift in”.

Lamb is the only red meat protein that has maintained or grown in per capita consumption in the last 10-12 years according to Kliner and will continue to grow likely in the next 5-10 years, but supply has been trending the exact opposite of demand every year for the last 5 years.

Sungold Specialty Meats processes 70% of the lambs raised in Alberta at their Innisfail plant.

Kliner explains where their lamb products are landing.

“85-90% goes domestically into every province and every territory in the country.  The balance goes to export markets such as the Middle East and Dubai, Mexico, United States, Hong Kong.  We sell to a large number of major retail chains and food service companies, particularly in western Canada”.

You'll find their products at Sobeys, Safeway, Co-op and Save-On-Foods in Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC and Manitoba.


Here's some examples of their new value added product line, and following feedback from their customers they've added new recipes and video recipes online.