Yukon-raised chicken for sale in local grocery stores for 1st time

For the first time, people can buy Yukon-raised chicken at local grocery stores, the territorial government announced last week.

"Seeing our littlegoofy doodle on the shelf at Bigway is kind of nice," Cain Vangel, owner of The Farm Gate, located in Marsh Lake, said in reference to the company's logo.

He said he started raising a few turkeys each year before escalating to a few hundred. Eventually, he started raising chickens, and more and more people started asking him if they could buy his chicken in stores, he said.

One of the main bottlenecks that limited the company's growth was the processing part of the business, Vangel said.

Subsequently, The FarmGate's abattoir, also known as a slaughterhouse, was built a couple of years ago. The operation was licensed last month, he said. That now allows the meat processed there to be sold in grocery stores and be used in restaurants, he added.

Before, he was only allowed to sell directly to customers, including at the farm, Vangel said.

The plant processes chickens from other producers about 5,000 chickens last year, he estimated and also his own.

Vangel said he aims to raise and sell about 3,000 of his own chickens this year, mainly during the summer months. He said he's considering expanding his operation to increase production, and possiblyraise more animals during the winter.

"I would be super happy being able to move 200 chickens a week. Like, that would be close to 10,000 a year, and that would be wonderful," he said.

"Ideally, it would be nice to process all the chickens that are eaten in the Yukon, and sort of offset the stuff coming up the highway, with local production up here, whether it's my birds or processing birds for other people."

In Whitehorse, Bigway Foods has been selling Vangel's whole chickens for a few weeks.

"We jumped on the opportunity to sell them right away because we love selling anything local any time we can," store managerAsh Jurovich said. "We probably sold about 70 whole birds in the first few days."

At the store, Vangel's whole chickens sell for $12.99 per kilogram. Another company's whole chickens arepriced at $7.99 per kilogram.

Jurovich saidVangel's whole chickens tend to be larger than the competition and, though they cost more, he thinks people like to support local businesses, and they appreciate the freshness of the product.

He saidsales of The Farm Gate's whole chickens have been consistently better than competing products, and he thinks Vangel's chickenhas some staying power.

Vangel saidhis chicken is currently being sold in Whitehorse at two groceries stores and a butcher shop, andit's also being used in meals at several restaurants in the city.

"Having someone else make your chicken all nice in a box for takeaway was pretty sweet," he said.