Relationships with processors and chick suppliers improved last year, according to the leaders of Chicken Farmers of Ontario speaking recently to the annual meeting.
Chairman Murray Opstein said that the board and the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors was able to reach agreement on a new cost-of-production formula on time and without resorting to arbitration.
And the full boards of directors held a joint meeting in addition to many other meetings and communications on a range of issues.
Strained relations with the Ontario Broiler Chick and Hatching Egg Commission were also a focus of attention, resulting in improvements in the supply chain so Ontario chicken production can fill the allocations from the national agency. There are now six working groups striving to make relationships work better.
There will be longer-ranger projections and greater transparency, the annual meeting was told.
Opstein said the updated cost-of-production formula adds 1.5 cents per kilogram for labour, 4.5 cents for capital costs and 1.32 cents for operating costs.
It took effect with the first quota period this year.
Opstein said about 80 per cent of Ontario’s 1,300 chicken farmers have, or will soon have, modular loading capacity which will improve bird welfare and health and safety conditions for workers. He urged the other 20 per cent to get working on modular loading which will be compulsory by the end of the year.
He said Maple Leaf Foods, when it consolidated processing at four plants to the new one at London also required modular loading capability from all of its growers.
Hockaday reported that Ontario chicken production last year was about 650 million kilograms, the industry employed about 29,000 workers and contributed $5 billion to the Canadian economy, which was double the contribution 10 years ago.
On the bright side, there is less competition from beef, the Canadian population continues to increase and chicken remains the lowest-priced meat on the market.
