The
Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processors Association is escalating its
confrontation with the marketing board that serves growers.
It has
begun cancelling orders amidst talk of a “perfect storm,” quoting Don Epp,
executive director of the processors’ association.
He says
the distress is caused by an outdated growers cartel (i.e. the Ontario
Processing Vegetable Growers Marketing Board) increasing production costs, and
threats from the Trump administration to tear up NAFTA while adding a 20 per
cent Value Added Tax to any produce that crosses the border.
Association
President Karl Evans says the group has contacted Agriculture Minister Jeff
Leal about those matters.
A few
months ago Leal cancelled proposals from the Ontario Farm Products Marketing
Board to take away the marketing board’s price-negotiating powers. Leal has
instead called for consultations.
At the
time, commission chairman Geri Kamenz raised concerns that Ontario’s vegetable
processing sector is in serious decline. He has resigned as commission chairman,
effective the end of the year.
Evans
says he’s concerned that time is running out for seed and crop allocation
orders.
He
feels the marketing system used is restrictive, and allows contracted producers
to act as a cartel, setting a single price for the whole sector without looking
at long-term economic consequences.
It’s
the strongest attack that Ontario processors of any commodity have launched
against marketing boards.
