Chai Kosher Poultry Inc. of Toronto has sold its plant
supply quota to Sargent Farms of Milton.
No terms of the deal have been disclosed.
The transfer has received approval from the Chicken Farmers
of Ontario marketing board which set up the system to ration chicken supplies
among processing plants.
The transfer also means that another key ethnic market has
been left without a supplier.
Sargent Farms specializes in Halal-protocol slaughter for
Muslims and does not have approval from the Jewish community as a provider of
kosher-standard chicken.
The Jewish community has, it is said, approached the Ontario
Farm Products Marketing Commission and the Chicken Farmers of Ontario seeking a
way to source fresh kosher-standard chicken in Ontario.
So far they have not been satisfied by the commission or the
marketing board.
The situation is similar to the Chinese community that has
been left without a supplier of Hong Kong style chicken after the chicken board
policies cut off suppliers to CAMI International Poultry Inc. of Welland.
The chicken board has a mandate for supply management, but this looks like total mismanagement.
CAMI has hired lawyers to try several avenues to obtain
chicken for its customers.
