In a stunning reversal from recent policy, the Egg Farmers
of Ontario marketing board is offering its members a quota increase.
It has been holding on to allocation increases from the
national agency and ran a lending program, charging its members $7.30 per hen
per year. The revenues were used to pay operating expenses.
Now the board has decided that only 30 per cent of the
upcoming increase from the national agency will be leased. That’s 146,940 units
of quota.
The rest – 342,860 units - will be given to producers.
Thirty per cent of that “rest” left after leasing will go to
members with each one receiving 433 units.
Seventy per cent will be allocated pro rata, meaning it
depends on how much basic quota they already hold.
That means those holding the most quota will get the largest
increases.
Last year Daryll Phoenix filed an appeal asking that the
leased quota be available on a pro rata basis – i.e. as a percentage of the
basic quota each member holds.
Egg quota has recently traded at around $300 per unit, so
small fortunes are at stake in the policy reversal from leasing to granting
quota increases.
The board has informed its members that they will soon each
receive a letter outlining how much quota they qualify to lease and how much
they will gain via distribution.
The national agency has increased allocations every year for
several years and still has not been able to get enough production to meet
Canadian demand. The gap is filled by imports which, when they come in without
tariff, are much cheaper than Canadian-produced eggs.
During that public hearing at the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Appeal Tribunal, it seemed that Phoenix and a
couple of other quota holders supporting him really wanted the quota
distributed pro rata, not just available for lease.
They had, however, filed their appeal with wording that said
they sought pro rata leasing and lawyer Herman Turkstra, acting on their behalf, stuck with the wording.
Egg quota has recently traded at around $300 per unit, so
small fortunes are at stake in the policy reversal from leasing to granting
quota increases.
The board has informed its members that they will soon each
receive a letter outlining how much quota they qualify to lease and how much
they will gain via distribution.
The national agency has increased allocations every year for
several years and still has not been able to get enough production to meet
Canadian demand. The gap is filled by imports which, when they come in without
tariff, are much cheaper than Canadian-produced eggs.
