PED in Oxford County

There has been an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus at a farrow-to-wean facility in Oxford County.

CFIA lifts quarantine in North Perth

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has lifted the quarantine zone in put in place in North Perth Dec. 16 because of an outbreak of avian influenza in a poultry flock.

Kraft-Heinz to upgrade Montreal plant

 

Kraft-Heinz announced it is going to invest $250 million to refurbish its facility in Montreal.

It employs 1,000 people running 41 manufacturing lines making everything from peanut butter to salad dressings.

“Our business in Canada is doing very well,” Simon Laroche, who leads Kraft Heinz in Canada. “As we’re looking at our three to five year plans, what we have right now is not enough to meet Canadian demand and needs.”

Laroche said the company wants to make more Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Heinz ketchup and also wants to bring innovation to existing products to meet changing consumer preferences, including offering more packaging sizes to meet different shopper budgets.

More AAFC cuts coming

More cuts are coming, said Milton Dyck, president of the union representing workers at Agriculture and AgriFood Canada.

Some of that is public, such as an already-announced budget cuts of about $350 million over the next three years.

The plans include staff cuts of 665 workers of which about 450 work in science, research and innovation.

That calculation is based on current staffing of 5,134 people.

The next largest group, 1,538, work on internal services.

James Neven appointed to farm products commission

James Neven, long-time director of the Ontario Greenhouse Growers marketing board, has been appointed to a two-year term on the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission.

He has resigned from the veggie board.

"James has been a thoughtful, principled, and highly engaged leader on our Board," said Steve Peters, chairman of the OGVG.

"He consistently advocated for Ontario's greenhouse vegetable growers and brought a collaborative approach to complex issues. We are grateful for his service and proud to see him represent our sector at the provincial level."

He is the first greenhouse vegetable grower to gain a seat on the commission.

He farms Neven Produce Inc. at Lynden.

Burrows to head Grain Growers of Canada

Bruce Burrows will take over as executive director of Grain Growers of Canada on April 1.

He takes over from Kyle Larkin who left in December.

Ontario rejoined the organization earlier this year.

Burrows has been president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Marine Commerce and vice president and acting president and chief executive officer of the Railway Association of Canada. He also has experience in consulting and policy through Tactix Government Relations and BurCan Consulting.

Burrows said it is “a real honour to join Grain Growers of Canada and represent the interests of grain farmers across the country.”

“Strong advocacy starts with strong connections, and I look forward to strengthening those relationships by working with producers and members across Canada to ensure their priorities continue to be clearly heard in Ottawa,” he said.

Egg production increased despite avian influenza

Despite avian influenza outreaks that have claimed more than 17million Canadian birds since 2021, Egg Farmers of Canada reported that its supply-management members had 2.92 million more birds last year than the year before.

Of that, 1.5 million were granted them on a temporary basis to make up for the disease losses and the higher cost of eggs that used to be imported from the United States when its prices were much lower than Canadian prices. The U.S. was hit so hard by avian flu that President Donald Trump promised consumers that he would bring egg prices back down.

Canadian egg production increased by 7.6 per cent last year to 937 million dozen, with retail egg sales up by 5.8 per cent and foodservice demand up 2.6 per cent. 

The Egg Farmers of Canada marketing board credited its “Eggs Everywhere” advertising with reducing them number of households consuming six or fewer eggs per week. That number was down by four per cent.

At the end of last year, about 53 per cent of laying hens were out of conventional caged housing. A number of supermarkets and fast-food chains have announced deadlines after which they will not buy eggs if the hens are housed in conventional cages.