‘450,000 dozen per day’: Listowel now home to largest egg grading facility in Canada

Listowel is now home to the most advanced and largest egg collection and grading facility in Canada. Scott Miller reports.

Millions of Ontario eggs come through Gray Ridge Egg Farms facility in Listowel every single day - 450,000 dozen per day to be exact.

“The eggs that are graded at this facility, literally you can drive up Highway 86 and find farmers that produced the eggs that were brought here. You can go to the grocery store in Listowel, Wingham or wherever and buy Gray Ridge eggs,” said Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae.

Rae was joined by over 200 Ontario egg producers, getting their first look at a $35 million expansion and modernization that makes Gray Ridge’s Listowel facility the largest and most advanced egg grading plant in all of Canada.

“The new shell inspector on this takes a looks at the eggs and decides grade A eggs, is brand new technology from MOBA and it’s state of the art, and it makes the machine much more operable, because there’s not as many moving parts. So, cleaning and everything in sanitation is much easier,” explained Gray Ridge Egg Farms President Scott Brookshaw.

The 60,000 square foot expansion means a lot less person-to-person handling, with robots you’d see on auto assembly lines now moving flats of eggs from one machine to the next.

Brookshaw says the expansion means the facility can handle nearly four million dozen per week, up from 3.1 million dozen before the modernization.

“It should demonstrate to everyone across the province and Canada that there is the ability to host big business in small towns,” said Ontario Minister of Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson.

For the farmers that produce the eggs that end up at Gray Ridge, some getting their first look at the new facility, it’s a jaw-dropping experience, seeing the amount of technology now involved in getting the eggs from their farms to tables across Ontario.

“When my parents started and my mom took the eggs in these round cage baskets, and she washed them by hand, and graded them with this little scale, to where we are today. It’s really amazing, wow,” says lifelong egg producer, Marg Van Nes, from the Stratford area, following her tour of the new grading facility.

For Gray Ridge Eggs Farms, which was founded in Ridgetown in 1934, the expansion and modernization mark the single biggest investment in their Ontario business, which is music to Marg Van Nes’ ears.

“Definitely gives us a boost, because we know they’re investing $35 million into this, so they’re not going away,” the Perth County egg producer said.

“That is the mission, to be able to grow and make sure that you’re always putting back into the facility, ensure the farmers have a good spot to take their eggs, and that you’re giving the most quality to our consumers,” added Brookshaw.

Gray Ridge Egg Farms were recently bought by P and H Foods. Two hundred people work out of Listowel’s Gray Ridge Egg Farms facility.