Thursday, July 12, 2012

B.C. can do it, but not Ontario



The British Columbia Chicken Marketing Board has granted 13 chicken producers on Vancouver Island 5,000 units of quota each.

They were given quota because the island has no source of chicken to supply the local market.

In Ontario, the chicken board has steadfastly refused similar requests for quota for farmers and their clients on Manitoulin Island and across Northern Ontario.

Four of the 13 on Vancouver Island were considered commercial producers, shipping 30,000 birds per quota period.

They shipped to the mainland, but now they will have to supply the Island Farmhouse Poultry plant which has a daily capacity of 5,000 birds.

The move by the B.C. chicken board has angered mainland quota holders.

The board cancelled a transportation subsidy to move island chickens to the mainland when it handed out the free quota. The subsidy was more than $77,000 last year.

The quota the 13 producers received cannot be sold off the island.