The Ontario chicken industry has found a solution to the lack of kosher
chicken, but not for Hong Kong dressed birds.
Perl’s Fine Foods of Toronto is going to rent the former Chai Kosher
Poultry Ltd. plant which closed in May and is going to get chicken from Sargent
Farms, which bought Chai, and in the short term from the marketing board.
Meanwhile the Ontario industry continues to refuse to supply CAMI
International Poultry Inc. which serves the Asian market in the Toronto area
with Hong Kong dressed birds – i.e. head and feet on.
The Jewish community raised a ruckus when about 200,000 Jews in the
Toronto area could no longer buy kosher-protocol chicken from Chai.
Marvid of Montreal did meet some of the demand, but the community said
it charged higher monopoly-market prices because it was the only
kosher-standard company in business in Ontario and Quebec.
Perl’s is a kosher meat company, but this will be its first venture into
poultry.
The chicken board is supplying 300,000 kilograms of birds to start the
company off and Sargent has promised to keep it supplied for 10 years.
Sargent took over Chai’s chicken supplies from farmers when it bought
the company, but it does not have approval to supply the kosher market. It
does, however, slaughter to Halal standards.
Perl’s is only the lead among a group of investors who have developed a
business plan that involves renting the Chai plant from Sargent for five years
with an option to renew for another five years and the right to market under
the Chai brand name.
The business plan calls for
slaughter and processing to gradually increase until the plant is back to its
pre-sale volume of 700,000 to 800,000 kilograms by October.
It also intends to resume
exporting to the United States, aiming for an export volume of 500,000 to
800,000 kilograms. That will be contingent on the national agency, Chicken
Farmers of Canada, granting “market development” quota so Ontario farmers can
grow the birds.
“Market development” is the
national agency’s euphamism for exports. It wants to maintain a low profile
because Americans successfully objected when the dairy industry started
exporting; they argued that the farmers producing under supply management could
“cross-subsidize” their additional production for the export market and the
World Trade Organization agreed with their complaint.
The investment team says 45 per
cent of the Ontario demand for kosher chicken is Jewish people, 25 per cent is
people who prefer the kosher protocol because they think the chicken is safer
and better, 20 per cent is Muslims and 10 per cent is people who buy kosher for
philosophical and religious reasons, including some Jehovah’s Witness and
Seventh Day Adventist church members.
They estimate the market for
kosher products in Ontario is $110 million a year.
Before the federal and provincial
supply-management system drastically cut its ability to buy Canadian chickens,
CAMI International was processing about 700,000 to 800,000 kilograms every six-week quota
period.
It is seeking relief through a
number of avenues, including lawsuits.
It also offered to supply the
kosher market if it could be granted chickens to meet the demand.
CAMI also had plans to develop export markets.
