The Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board is once again
adjusting its pricing formula as it relates to feed costs.
It took a 1.5-cent reduction for quota period A-111 when the
Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission ordered a review of the feed
component of the pricing formula.
Now it’s rescinding that price reduction and says it will
implement a new pricing formula.
Under the new formula, prices will move up or down one cent
per kilogram whenever feed prices move up or down by $5.81 per tonne. Under the
old formula, the adjustments were made for every $5 change in feed costs.
The new formula will take full effect for quota period
A-120, which begins Oct. 6.
The chicken board hasn't uttered a peep about the reliability of the feed prices that are plugged into the formula. Glenn Black has shown that Ontario's poultry-feed prices are out of line with U.S. prices and Ontario feeds for livestock.
However, that new formula will probably be short-lived
because there are negotiations underway between the chicken board and the Association
of Ontario Chicken Processors on the entire pricing formula.
Meanwhile, the two have still not settled on a policy for
specialty markets. The AOCP filed an appeal with the tribunal when the chicken
board said it would implement the policy, but the tribunal suspended the action
because the two returned to the bargaining table.
The stalemate leaves two significant markets without
Ontario-produced chicken – the kosher market, which is entering a peak
religious-season demand period the beginning of September, and the Asian market
for Hong-Kong dressed birds with feet and legs left on.
