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.
