The Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board has issued a
call for proposals to establish processing to meet the demand for kosher
chicken.
It has set a May 30 deadline for proposals to be filed
electronically with the marketing board.
The proposals must show that the applicants have the
financial, management and marketing resources to launch a successful business
and must fit within the four corners of supply-management regulations.
The province’s only kosher chicken-processing plant, Chai
Kosher Poultry of Toronto, closed a year ago when it sold its business to
Sargent Farms which does not process for the kosher market.
Sargent gained Chai’s share of Ontario chicken production
which the marketing board rations among processing companies.
The chicken marketing board says on its website that those
who want to buy kosher chicken say there is only one Canadian plant remaining
in that business – it’s in Montreal - and it can’t process enough birds to meet
demand.
The chicken board has said nothing about its failure to
supply chicken to the province’s only plant, CAMI International Poultry Inc. of
Welland, that processed for the Asian community seeking Hong Kong dressed
chicken – i.e. feet and heads left on.
The chicken board is also developing a policy to encourage
processing to meet specialty-markets demand, but has not yet posted any information
about that policy.
The province’s dominant processors opposed that policy,
stalling its introduction for more than a year. They withdrew an application
for a public hearing by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeal
Tribunal without giving any reasons for the withdrawal.
