Chicken processors in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and
Manitoba have all filed appeals with their provincial governments over the new
national chicken allocation policy.
That means it’s not yet a done deal, writes David Schmidt of
Country Life in B.C. newspaper.
He picked up news of the appeals from David Janzen, chairman
of the B.C. chicken growers marketing board and the B.C. director on the
national agency, from comments Janzen made during a meeting of chicken farmers
at Abbotsford.
Janzen said “we need to get through this issue. I want to
see stability.”
Under the new policy, Ontario and Alberta will gain
additional production rights when the national market increases.
Since the beginning of national supply management,
provincial shares have remained at the initial percentages of whatever national
target the board of directors set.
Ontario and Alberta have complained from the beginning that
they are not able to produce and process enough chicken to meet their
provincial demand.
Until now, the other provinces have not been willing to
yield any of their share to satisfy the increasing demand in Alberta and
Ontario. They have, instead, preferred to “export” some of their chicken to provinces
that haven’t got enough.
The appeals have been filed with the supervisory bodies each province has appointed to oversee marketing boards.
