The Association of Ontario Chicken Processors has filed an
appeal against the new specialty chicken policy the Chicken Farmers of Ontario
marketing board wants to implement.
The appeal means the policy is shelved until the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeal Tribunal hears the case.
Chicken Farmers of Ontario has waived the condition that an
appeal ought to be filed first with it and only then should the AOCP be in a position
to go to the tribunal.
The AOCP represents processors who handle almost all of the
chicken Ontario farmers produce.
The Independent Poultry Processors Association represents a
number of small-volume processors who are likely to be the biggest users of the new specialty-markets policy.
Two years ago, led by objections from the
AOCP, they were denied a seat on an advisory committee to the Chicken Farmers
of Ontario.
The independents will likely seek status at the tribunal
hearing because its members have a keen interest in specialty markets.
There are currently two specialty markets that are begging
for chicken – the Asian community which wants Hong Kong style birds and the
Jewish community which wants kosher-standard chicken.
The Jewish community lost its supplier when Chai Poultry was
purchased by Sargent Farms.
The Asian community was supplied by CAMI International
Poultry Inc., but the chicken board refuses to provide that company with the
chickens it needs to fill that demand.
The appeal comes just before the national agency meets May 7
to establish allocations to each province.
Ontario would have been seeking extra allocation to meet the
demand for its new specialty-markets policy.
What I find disgusting is that supply management, set up to benefit farmers, is being abused by processors who systematically try to short the market so they have no difficulty selling their production.
The processors insist that production ought to be reduced whenever their inventories rise. This approach to supply management means that the market is driven by the least desirable products in the least desirable locations at the least desirable times; that's what inventory backups represent.
Meanwhile the public that wants the most desirable products at the most desirable locations at the most desirable times too often can't get what they want.
Supply management for Ontario chicken is in far too many ways simply not working for anybody but the dominant processing companies.
What I find disgusting is that supply management, set up to benefit farmers, is being abused by processors who systematically try to short the market so they have no difficulty selling their production.
The processors insist that production ought to be reduced whenever their inventories rise. This approach to supply management means that the market is driven by the least desirable products in the least desirable locations at the least desirable times; that's what inventory backups represent.
Meanwhile the public that wants the most desirable products at the most desirable locations at the most desirable times too often can't get what they want.
Supply management for Ontario chicken is in far too many ways simply not working for anybody but the dominant processing companies.
