The Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board has set up
yet another round of consultations on its long-delayed policy to stimulate the
development of specialty markets.
The board spent several years consulting to come out with a
policy that was immediately opposed by the Association of Ontario Chicken
Processors.
After months of stalling during negotiations, the AOCP filed
for a public hearing with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeal
Tribunal.
At the last minute, the appeal was cancelled and the chicken
board and processors went into another round of consultations.
And at the end of that the processors filed another appeal
with the tribunal.
And again, at the last minute, that was cancelled and the
chicken board said it intended to go ahead with the policy.
That was months ago and there are still no signs of a firm
implementation date.
In the meantime, processors, many of them running tiny
family businesses, were left in the lurch after filing applications, backed
with business plans, and had to inform their customers that they can’t get
chickens to meet their demand.
Details about this latest round of consultations are posted
on the chicken board’s website.
So what's the holdup?
I think it's opposition from the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors whose members are not interested in developing niche markets and fear that those who are interested will take chicken away from them to develop those markets.
So if Ontario doesn't have enough chicken to meet market demand - and there are plenty of indications that's the case, including the price of $12 to $13 per unit of plant supply quota - then Ontario needs to get permission from the national agency to grow more chickens.
And if the national agency continues to stonewall Ontario, as it has for years, Ontario ought to pull out of the national agency and produce enough chicken to satisfy the market.
There was a time when pulling out would have spelled the end to protection from imports, but that's no longer the case under the current world trade agreement that converted import protection via quotas into protection via tariffs. The tariffs would remain if Ontario pulled out.
Would this wreck supply management? Well, the current setup in doing a pretty fine job of wrecking things.
