At the urging of Laurent Pellerin, chairman of the Farm Products Council of Canada, the Egg Farmers of Canada and the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council have met three times and more negotiations are scheduled to try to reach a new agreement on the handling of eggs for processing.
The egg farmers want better prices so they can limit the amount they need to pay to cover the price difference between the table and processing market.
They also want to limit quantities which have been steadily increasing.
Pellerin said that he wants the two sides to try hard to come to an agreement but, if they can't, he wants them to narrow down their differences and then clearly define them.
At that point, he said he will strike a committee to hear an appeal that was filed by the processors in objection to the terms the egg agency has proposed. Those hearings will lead to a council decision on how to deal with the issues.
Pellerin said the marketplace has changed a lot since the agreement that has been in place began. For example, he said there is much greater demand now for special markets, such as Tim Horton's, and for high-value ingredients that are extracted from eggs.
