The national supply-management agency for chicken has opened
the door a crack for farmers to grow a special breed of chicken, Silkies, to
meet the demand for Hong Kong dressed birds.
Hong Kong dressed birds have both head and feet left on.
CAMI International Poultry Inc. of Welland, Ont., has been
the major supplier for this market, which is mainly Asian immigrants living in
the Greater Toronto area, but it has bought regular chicken from quota-holding
farmers, many of them in Quebec.
That source of chickens was cut off last year when the
Ontario and Quebec marketing boards, with support from the major processing
companies, agreed to ban cross-border trade in live chickens.
Most processors who were buying chickens from farmers in the
other province had their needs met after this ban by re-directing
within-province production to keep them supplied.
CAMI was not. It has filed court action, challenging the
legality of the ban on inter-provincial trade.
The Ontario chicken board has developed a policy to supply
chickens to processing seeking specialty markets, but has been held up on two
fronts.
One is an appeal against the policy filed by the Association
of Ontario Chicken Processors. CAMI is not a member of that association.
Another is the refusal of the national agency to grant
Ontario the right to increase chicken production to serve these markets.
It’s unlikely that many quota-holding chicken farmers will
be interested in Silkie chickens because they are more costly to raise.
That is one of the reasons why the Ontario chicken board
failed to reach agreement with the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors
who sought to limit the specialty-markets policy to specific marginal breeds.
The processors’ appeal is scheduled to be heard by the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeal Tribunal Dec. 11 and 12 in
Guelph.
On a related front, Ontario’s request to the national
agency for additional production to serve the kosher market was voted down by
all the other provinces except British Columbia.
It got surprising support from the Canadian Egg and Poultry
Processors Council which represents the major processing companies who have so
far failed to meet the demand for kosher chicken.
In fact, one of its members, Sargent Farms, is the reason
for the current shortage. It bought the chicken suppliers from Chai Kosher
Poultry Inc. of Toronto, putting that company out of business.
Others supporting Ontario on the kosher issue were the
associations representing restaurants and foodservice companies and
further-processing companies.
The chairman of Chicken Farmers of Canada, the national
agency, and staff also supported Ontario’s request and all of those supporters
have been thanked publicly by Ontario chicken board chairman Henry Zantingh.
On its website, the Ontario
board says “a significant
number of kosher consumers have expressed concerns over the quality and
quantity of available kosher chicken products and national media reports have
noted that the supply of kosher chicken was disappearing from grocery store
shelves.
“Ontario’s
unfulfilled demand for kosher chicken has also started to have an impact on
kosher markets across the country, creating kosher chicken shortages in other
markets with significant Jewish populations, such as Winnipeg.”
There
is a group of investors, including the former principals of Chai Kosher
Poultry, interested in resuming processing at the Toronto plant, provided they
can buy chickens.
These actions by the farmers and processors who govern chicken production across Canada are, I predict, likely to prompt politicians to intervene and order them to supply these markets.
It could be the beginning of the end of unquestioning and unqualified support for supply management that has been repeatedly pledged by all of Canada's political parties.
