Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Somebody’s cheating on chicken imports

Somebody is cheating on imports of chicken meat from spent fowl, meaning burned-out egg-laying birds, says the national supply-management agency for Canada’s chicken farmers.

“Evidence suggests fraud,” says the agency in a recent report.

“Based on production and trade statistics, Canada is currently importing more spent fowl breast
meat than is actually produced in the entire United States,” the agency, Chicken Farmers of Canada, says.

“Canada imported spent fowl meat representing 101 per cent of U.S. spent fowl production in 2012 and has - within the first five months of 2013 - imported the equivalent of 109 per cent of U.S. spent fowl production.

“This clearly points to the fact that chicken meat is being imported and declared as spent fowl in order to bypass import controls.

“Fraud such as this robs Canada’s chicken farmers and processors of jobs and revenue that could – and should – benefit the Canadian economy,” says the agency.

In 2005, the imports equalled about five per cent of Canadian broiler chicken production. By 2013, it had soared to 17 per cent.

This is processed chicken, making it hard for untrained U.S. inspectors – who issue export certificates – and Canadian Border Services personnel to distinguish between meat from broiler from meat from spent fowl.

In some cases, it might be mingled to further confuse the civil servants.

As an example of where this meat ends up, low-profile Erie Meat Products Ltd. uses much of it to make chicken wieners.

It’s volume is apparently so great that it not only serves the Canadian market, but has also developed substantial export sales.

Erie Meats started in 1997 and now has four plants besides its main one in Mississauga, including one for poultry at Listowel.


It also further processes beef and pork and has all of Canada’s biggest supermarket chains as customers.

If this cheating could be stopped in its tracks, there would be enough demand to increase the right of Ontario quota holders to increase production and satisfy all of the many processors and further processors who have complained for decades that they can't get enough chickens.

It could eliminate the need for plant supply quotas - the rationing of scarce supplies among processors - and free the market for vigorous competition, including innovations to seek out and serve new niche markets.

And there would be more than enough demand to enable all of the small-flock growers to expand beyond the current limit of 300 birds per year to 2,500 without having to shell out a small fortune to buy quota.