The $7.5-million penalty that hung over the Egg Farmers of
Ontario marketing board for years has been waived.
Egg Farmers of Canada, the national agency, assessed the
penalties because Ontario production exceeded the official limits.
But those limits proved to be less than the Ontario market
needed to satisfy demand, so the national agency recently decided to waive all
Liquidated Damages penalties because “there were no damages,” wrote Ontario Egg
Board media relations manager Bill Mitchell.
The national agency also changed the regulations to match
current market conditions.
On another front, the national agency undertook a cost-of-production
study for enriched housing, which gives hens more space, and decided a premium
of 11 cents a dozen is warranted. That is a penny more than the Ontario board
had been paying.
About 80 per cent of Ontario’s eggs are produced in conventional
housing, 15 per cent in enriched housing and five per cent in other housing
setups, mainly aviaries that are necessary to meet organic production
standards.
Under pressure from animal activist groups, many significant
buyers of eggs, such as McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, have set deadlines beyond
which they will not buy eggs from hens housed in cages.
