There has been a shortage of chickens in the lightest-weight
category for months, and it’s getting worse.
There are a number of factors, according to various sources
in the chicken industry, none of them willing to be quoted by name.
One is that it’s not as profitable for either farmers or
processors to market chicken in the lightest-weight category. They make better
margins on weightier birds.
Production of these light-weight birds was cut back first in
Quebec where they now are simply not available, and now in Ontario.
One of the suppliers, Farm Fresh Poultry co-operative at
Harriston has converted to organic chicken and is no longer processing the
lightest-weight category.
Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. at Norval, near Brampton, is cutting
back on the category and some of its customers have been told the company will
no longer be able to service them.
That has, in turn, left some retailers in the lurch. For
example, one company president said he has many Mom and Pop barbecue
restaurants serving the Portuguese community in Toronto and they are not able
to get the light-weight birds.
He said one customer may be forced into bankruptcy because
he recently expanded to add three more locations for which he now is unable acquire
chicken.
These Portugeuse businesses use imported cooking equipment
which require the small birds.
A spokesman for one of the supply-management regulators
involved in the shortage said there have already been successful applications
for supplementary import permits.
Another related issue is reduced supply from the United
States when the Canadian Border Services Agency began using DNA testing to
distinguish boneless chicken breasts that are harvested from spent fowl or from
broilers.
The national agency complained before that there was so much
chicken being imported as spent fowl, for which there is no tariff, that the
total was greater than the entire U.S. supply.
When that supply dropped, the Canadian supply-management
system was not able to react immediately to fill the void, so there was a
shortage.
The result is record-high, and still climbing, prices for
boneless chicken breast meat.
And yet another factor has been the inability of Ontario to
produce up to the increased limits granted under a new deal with the national
agency.
For all but one of the quota periods in the last two years,
Ontario has fallen short of filling its allocation. In the most recent quota
period, it actually produced less than the comparable quota period last year.
One of the "explanations" that has been cited is a retrovirus that is impacting chick quality and supplies. Another is that Mexico has needed chicks from the U.S. and that has reduced the supply there, including the availability for Canadians.
One of the embarrassing issues for supply management is that
part of its bargain with the public is that in return for being able to charge
prices high enough to cover production costs and provide acceptable returns for
labour, management and investment, it is to keep the Canadian market adequately
supplied with wholesome chicken.
