The panel that conducted hearings into the establishment of
a national marketing agency for independent pullet growers is coming close to
finishing its report which is likely to be presented to the board of directors
at the next meeting of the Farm Products Council of Canada.
Nathalie Vanasse,
the council’s hearing secretary, wrote in an e-mail that the council will be
deciding what needs to happen next. One of the possibilities is that the
council will accept its recommendations and forward them to Agriculture Minister
Gerry Ritz for a decision.
If the
recommendation is to go ahead with a national agency and Ritz agrees, it will
be the first new national supply-management agency in about 40 years.
It would also be a travesty of justice. Andy deWeerd of Tavistock has led the campaign and I certainly do not blame him for pressing for a better deal for independent pullet growers. They deserve prices closer to their cost of production as determined by an accountancy-firm study of costs.
But there are fewer than 20 independent pullet growers in Ontario; egg producers raise most of their own pullets. They already make more than enough profit. If a national agency is formed, granting power to roughly double prices, it will be a windfall for these egg producers because the egg boards will tack on the new and higher cost of pullets to their cost-of-production formula pricing.
If it's possible, the national agency powers ought to be restricted to independent pullet growers. However, if that happens, guess how many egg producers will be setting up sham operations to claim independent pullet production?
The council
supervises national supply-management agencies for chickens, hatching eggs,
eggs and turkeys.
The Canadian Dairy
Commission supervises the national supply-management programs for dairy.
The council also
supervises a national agency for beef-industry research and promotion and is
expected to rule soon on an application for a similar national agency for
raspberries.
