The dispute between Egg Farmers of Canada and the Canadian Poultry
and Egg Processors Council remains unsettled.
The two met for a third time recently, but were unable to
reach an agreement on contracting terms for the diversion of eggs from the “table”
to the “processing” market.
Egg Farmers of Canada is concerned by an increase in the
volume of eggs that grading stations have declared surplus to table-market
demand, especially in the weeks immediately after the Christmas and Easter
seasons.
It hasn't helped matters that the two biggest Canadian graders - L.H. Gray
and Sons Ltd. and Burnbrae Farms Ltd. - have used supplementary import permits to bring in U.S. eggs before the two festive seasons.
Two years ago some of those U.S. eggs owned by Gray ended up in unrefrigerated storage north of Guelph and were condemned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They eventually went for processing, apparently at the expense of Canadian egg producers who pay a levy on all egg marketings to underwrite the price differential between table-market and processing-market eggs.
Last year there were so many surplus eggs that there was a two-week backlog for processing in January.
The situation this year remains to be determined.
There were reports that at the end of November that Gray had so many Ontario eggs that the company couldn't keep up with grading and was warned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that it was holding table-market eggs too long.
That would seem to indicate there would be no
need for supplementary imports from the United States.
