Who dreams up these schemes for the Ontario egg industry?
We have Andy DeWeerd working his butt off, trying to get a national agency for independent pullet growers. Why bother? There are only about a dozen in Ontario and many of them are small-scale pullet growers whose clients aren't even holders of egg quota.
Well, I think I know why they bother. It's a way for the egg quota holders, who are the dominant holders of pullet quota, to increase their revenues without changing their costs. Pure profit! And plenty of it, judging by the cost-of-production study the pullet growers commissioned.
And now we have the directors of the egg board springing a nasty surprise - a retroactive freeze on quota transfers.
Did, as rumour has it, the chairman and several other directors buy quota within the last year, in advance of proposing to establish a quota exchange and before they voted to implement a freeze on everybody else's plans to buy or sell egg or pullet quota?
And they did this right after the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission launched an inquiry into the board's governance and transparency. Audacious directors, eh/
They talk about patterning an Ontario quota exchange on the one in Quebec.
So, guys, is it true that quota transfers have plummeted since Quebec introduced its exchange?
Is it true that Quebec acted because feed mills, hatcheries and egg-grading stations that helped farmers buy quota also demanded they sign contracts to buy their feed and/o chicks and/or sell their eggs to the company whose field staff brought them the information about the availability of quota?
Is there any evidence of similar contracts in Ontario? If so, I have yet to hear of a single one.
Quebec forces those who sell the entire farm as an ongoing operation to push 15 per cent of the quota through its exchange. Is that the proposal for Ontario?
Who dreams up these schemes for the Ontario egg industry?
