Maple Leaf Foods has begun the formal process to sell its Ontario pork processing business, part of a restructuring as the food producer combats hog prices that have not kept pace with rising feed costs.

Toronto-based Maple Leaf said yesterday it will put the Burlington plant on the block immediately and expects the sale to close by year's end. The facility can process up to 50,000 hogs a week and is licensed to export its products to about 50 countries.

The unit has "long-standing customer relationships, a skilled and stable workforce and an excellent mix of value-added business," chief financial officer Michael Vels said in a statement. "It operates one of the more efficient pork processing plants in North America ... Our investments in the plant and our people have resulted in a profitable business that represents an excellent investment in the global pork processing industry."

Maple Leaf has about 23,000 workers at meat processing, bakery and other operations across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.