Glenn Black of Providence Bay, Manitoulin Island, figures
retail chicken prices ought to drop by 7.21 per cent when the Chicken Famers of
Ontario marketing board rolls back the prices it charges processors.
The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission forced the
chicken farmers to revise the cost-of-production formula to reflect improved
feed conversion rates.
The change in feed conversion was 16.3 per cent, prompting
Black to calculate that the chicken farmers have pocketed about $1 billion a
year for 10 years from the inflated cost-of-production formula.
Now he has followed through to calculate what the on-farm
price reduction should mean to the retail price for chicken – a decline of 7.21
per cent, or $136.59 million a year for Ontario alone.
And Black criticizes Mike Dungate of the national agency,
Chicken Farmers of Canada, for telling Globe and Mail columnist Barry McKenna
that the difference is “just cents”.
Yes, counters Black – 41.45 cents per kilogram at retail.
Dungate, in fact, told McKenna that while the feed
conversion factor over-priced chicken, farmers were probably under-charging for
their electricity and other costs.
He did not explain how the government-supervised
cost-of-production formula, which is crucial for fair pricing, can be flawed in
multiple ways. Or why the marketing boards don't work harder to keep it accurate.
Maybe with farmers being so cavalier about pricing chicken, the federal and provincial governments might become equally cavalier about continuing support for supply management. Now wouldn't that knock your socks off?
Black has demanded an apology from Dungate to Ontario
consumers.
