The new policy for specialty-market red-feathered birds is
going to make a few chicken farmers millionaires.
According to Sean McGivern of Progressive Farmers of
Ontario, there is one farmer who has been illegally raising red-feathered
chickens who figures the new board policy will benefit him to the tune of about
$3 million worth of chicken quota.
The board has already decided that some existing producers
of red-feathered birds will be favoured with quota so they can continue
supplying one or two processors who have been serving a specialty market for
Asian customers who want red-feathered birds and want the head and feet left
on.
The Ontario board finally gained approval last month from
the Chicken Farmers Agency of Canada for additional production rights for this
venture.
It is starting with a enough allocation to these farmers and
processors for two quota periods to take them to the end of this year. The
chicks are supplied by Frey’s Hatchery at St. Jacobs.
I asked the board to comment on this story, but, as usual, there has been no response. I don't know what their media relations guy does.
The board and national agency intend to implement a more
permanent arrangement after that.
McGivern is upset about what’s happening because, when he
led a delegation to the chicken board asking the directors to increase the
non-quota production limit from 300 to 2,000 birds a year, the board told him
that it regulates all chicken produced in Ontario.
The board said there were no exceptions, but McGivern said
it now turns out that the board has known all along that some
red-feathered-bird producers were raising far more than 300 birds per year.
“We tried to go through the right channels” and the board
turned down both the Progressive Farmers of Ontario and is fighting the same
issue with Glenn Black, president of Small Flockers of Canada.
“We were told a chicken is a chicken,” McGivern said,
meaning all breeds and processing techniques.
McGivern said “more people need to know about it,” meaning
the board’s knowledge that its 300-bird limit was not being consistently
enforced and that some producers are now in line for million-dollar windfall
benefits.
