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APRIL 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


11


Chicken growers unable to keep up with demand Pricing formula blamed for sluggish pace of investment in new barns


by DAVID SCHMIDT


VANCOUVER – After years of negotiations, the national chicken agreement is finally a done deal. “Quebec signed the national memorandum of understanding last week so it’s all done,” BC Chicken Marketing Board chair Robin Smith told the BC Chicken Growers Association annual meeting in Vancouver on March 2. “We have overcome all the issues and what we


have put in place has put us on an allocation system for years to come,” added Benoit Fontaine, elected chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada when BC grower Dave Janzen resigned for “personal reasons” last November after five years as CFC chair. Fontaine called the agreement “good news for all supply management,” saying it will allow all provinces to grow and permit Alberta to “rejoin the (national) flock.” That province withdrew a few years ago to pressure CFC into creating a differential allocation system. Although the new system gives extra allocations


to Alberta and Ontario, all provinces are seeing increased production. Fontaine notes Canadian chicken consumption hit a record 32 kgs per person in 2016. As a result, the national quota increased more than 4% last year. BCCMB director Derek Janzen noted BC gave


mainstream growers a 10% prorate quota increase but is not seeing all that production because many growers have inadequate barn space. BCCGA president Dale Krahn blamed the live


price, saying the current pricing formula doesn’t cover growers’ costs. “We’re farming our depreciation and don’t have money to reinvest in new barns and equipment,” he stated. That’s why the association has made a new


pricing formula its first priority. The current formula, mandated by the BC Farm Industry Review Board in 2010, adds a small differential to the weighted average of the live price in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. “The formula


worked well until Ontario introduced a new pricing formula in 2013,” Smith said. The new formula “might work well for Ontario but doesn’t work with our higher costs.” After “a straight-forward but lengthy review


DEREK JANZEN


process,” the board has developed a new pricing methodology and submitted it to the Pricing and Production Advisory Committee and FIRB for review. “We intend to implement the new formula for period A-143 (beginning April 16),” Smith told growers, saying it acknowledges BC’s higher costs but still takes Ontario pricing into account. “We have to allow processors to be competitive,”


he stressed. Increase bird density The BCCGA is also asking the board to increase


allowable bird density, saying it will improve efficiency. BC’s standard is 32.5 kg/sq.m. but can be increased to 35.5 kg/sq.m. if board inspectors approve a barn for higher density. Krahn wants the BCCMB to go further, increasing allowable density


DALE KRAHN


to 38.5 kg/sq.m., the standard in the rest of Canada.


Although there are


“natural tensions” from the chick supplier to the consumer and everyone in between, Smith insisted the industry “will only be successful if everyone works together.” Everyone agrees one thing the entire industry must work on is increasing public trust in agriculture. “We are not being


attacked directly but our retail brands are being attacked,” CFC executive director Mike Dungate told growers.


He said the poultry industry has been “one of the


driving forces behind the public trust steering committee,” reminding them building public trust “starts with everyone doing the right thing on their farm.”


He says industry has a lot of work to do, noting a


recent survey showed 65% of people consider themselves chicken “fans,” but only 40% of those have a positive opinion of chicken farmers. “That number concerns me,” Dungate said. He lauded BC’s efforts to promote chicken farmers through its Chicken Squad videos and two Poultry in Motion educational mini-barns. Those are not cheap endeavours. The BCCGA noted BC chicken growers and hatching egg producers spent almost $120,000 to bring the trailers to schools and fairs throughout the province.


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