Nestled in the heart of Glengarry, their father Maurice Desautels bought a poultry farm in Green Valley, Ontario, in 1975. With a chicken quota in hand, their family started raising and selling chickens to processors in the Province of Quebec, to the tune of 125,000 chickens per year.

In 1995, twenty years later, a chicken price war started between the Province of Ontario and Quebec. Wholesale costs for raising chickens were artificially depressed as the market was demanding lower prices. Their family had a few decisions to make if the business was to be sustainable. Thus Aliments Desautels Foods opened a meat processing plant on the farm. Their family started off with processing our chickens and selling them to distributors in Ottawa. With only one delivery truck, they focused on developing the meat processing side of the business. The type of meat their family processed using traditional butchering methods helped expand the overall territory, as specialty cuts and low minimum orders set their team apart.

In 2001, our family identified other areas of growth, and so we Federally Incorporated the business and became Aliments Desautels Foods Inc. Due to the proximity to the Province of Quebec; we had to be a federally inspected meat plant to sell our meat in that province. As a meat processing plant, we gained access to a vast territory, about 12% of Canada’s population lives in and around Montreal, Laval, Gatineau, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. As a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Canadian food inspected meat plant, we sell to distributors, wholesalers, grocery stores, restaurants, and other industries.

Every year the three brothers invested in the meat processing aspect of the business to grow. In 2005 Aliments Desautels Foods Inc. became an HACCP Accredited processing meat plant, listed with the Government of Canada’s Canadian Food Inspection Agency. A real game changer.