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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2017


Otter Co-op posts another record-breaking year Sales, membership post strong growth, sparking change to voting protocols


by DAVID SCHMIDT ALDERGROVE – It may be


time to rename the Otter Farm & Home Co-op as the Otter Gas, Oil & Convenience Store Co-op. The 95-year-old co-op posted its seventh straight record-breaking year in 2016, members were told at their annual meeting in Aldergrove on May 31. Otter sales exceeded $206 million in 2016, up 3.2% from 2015. That increase was felt all the way to the bottom line, as the co-op experienced net savings of over $2.5 million from operations. Add patronage refunds from Federated Co-op and overall net savings approached $7.9 million, a $2.5 million increase from 2015. Well over half of Otter’s sales come from its ever- expanding petroleum division, which now includes a bulk petroleum plant in Chilliwack and close to a dozen gas bars strewn across southern BC. The feed division, once the


co-op’s backbone, ended the year with sales of just under $42 million. While this was down from 2015, Otter CEO Jack Nicholson attributed most of the decline to lower prices rather than reduced tonnage. It remained a better- than-average contributor to the overall bottom line, as evidenced by its patronage allocations.


For the first time, Otter opted to pay members a different patronage allocation refund rate according to each division’s profitability. For feed customers, that meant a refund of 3.6% of purchases, slightly ahead of Otter’s average refund rate of 3.5%.


President Larry Jantzen noted that Otter’s membership is growing in step with growing sales. Almost 4,000 new members joined the co-op in 2016 and now those members will have a greater say. Director Maria Pucek announced that Otter


will go to a combined online and in-person election for directors next year. Instead of having just the 100 or so people who attend the annual meeting elect directors, “our goal is to have 5,000 people voting,” she said. This year saw the election


of three new directors to the board: Carlo Bonetti, Shannon Todd Booth and Charlie Fox. They replace Dick Mayer, Janice McWilliams and Martin Power, none of whom ran again, either by choice or because they had reached their term limit.


Food report card gives BC passing grade


by TAMARA LEIGH OTTAWA – The Conference


Board of Canada has produced its first provincial food report card, and BC turned in strong results in most categories, but ranked low on industry prosperity. The food report card is the second in a series of annual Canadian food report cards that explore and monitor Canada’s food performance. Canada’s Food Report Card 2015 compared Canada’s international food performance to 16 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. The 2016 food report card is the first to compare Canada’s domestic food performance across all 10 provinces (and territories where data permit). Canada's Food Report Card:


Provincial Performance compares 63 food performance metrics across Canada’s 10 provinces. It


organizes these metrics around the Canadian Food Strategy’s five elements: industry prosperity, healthy food and diets, food safety, household food security and environmental sustainability. "British Columbia leads all


provinces on two of the five categories in our food report card, making it one of the top overall performers," said Jean- Charles Le Vallée, associate director of the Conference Board of Canada's Centre for Food. "However, the province receives less than stellar grades on two categories, suggesting a need for improvement. In particular, BC is the worst-ranked province on industry prosperity." The report breaks industry


prosperity down into five sub- elements: natural endowments that shape primary agricultural production; capitalization and value-added; farm revenue structure and viability; the food manufacturing sector;


Otter Co-op manufactures a complete selection of feeds designed to meet the rigorous demands of BC,s commercial farmers and ranchers.


and food and beverage retailing. BC ranked well in only one: food and beverage retailing. BC received D grades for all but two farm-related metrics compared to other provinces. BC received the lowest


average grade across the 15 industry-related metrics that follow the supply chain from primary agriculture to food manufacturing, food retail, and food services. The report indicates this may be due, in part, to the category’s greater focus on primary agriculture. For instance, the province only has about 30% of its farm land in field crops compared with over 87% in Saskatchewan.


Positive side On the positive side, BC


received the best marks in the categories of healthy food and diets, and environmental sustainability. Healthy food and diets


focuses on the food and nutrition available and


consumed by British Columbians and is a key theme in the Canadian Food Strategy that the report supports. Overall, BC received an A grade, with top marks in 13 of the 31 metrics. Environmental sustainability includes the food system impacts through the production, processing, distribution, preparation and disposal of food. From household waste to soil health, BC receives either A or B grades in all but two of the 17 metrics. Focusing on agricultural production, BC receives top marks for particulate matter emissions, producing only one kilotonne per year compared to 139 kilotonnes in Saskatchewan. The one flag in this category was environmental farm planning, where BC receives a D score. According to the report, less than a quarter of BC farms report that they actively follow an environmental farm plan.


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