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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • AUGUST 2017 BC turkey allocations


fall as consumption lags West bears the brunt of issues in Eastern Canada


by DAVID SCHMIDT SURREY – BC turkey producers are taking a hit as


turkey consumption in Canada stagnates, and the industry’s bottom-up quota allocation system isn’t helping matters. While chicken consumption has skyrocketed in recent


years, consumers have been slow to gobble up turkey. “The over 9 kg storage stocks are up dramatically this


North Okanagan 4-H Beef Club member Leah Mitchell knows how to keep cool. She sought comfort from a livestock fan during the heat wave at the Okanagan Stock Show in Armstrong in July. LINDSAY BARTKO PHOTO


year,” BC Turkey Marketing Board (BCTMB) general manager Michel Benoit told growers meeting in Surrey, June 27. “Breast meat storage stocks are the big concern.”


Quota allocations


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Turkey Farmers of Canada (TFC) sets Canadian quota allocations by having processors and further processors submit their individual requirements to TFC each year. TFC then totals the requests to establish the year’s quota. Although processors and further processors admit the


oversupply not only exists but is severely impacting their margins, they are reluctant to reduce their individual requests for fear of losing market share. Instead, the processors asked TFC to apply a 5% across-the-board cutback to further processor requests. TFC directors rejected that request, however, calling it


“unfair.” Benoit believes, and TFC’s decision seems to confirm,


that further processors in Western Canada should not be cut back to the same extent as those in Ontario and Quebec, where most of the excess inventory exists. “Only 6% of the Canadian turkey inventory is in the


West,” Benoit points out. The oversupply has hit BC growers through quota


reductions. BCTMB dropped grower allocations from 93% to 89%


for the 2017-18 quota year. BCTMB director Les Burm reported that BC was able to fill all of its quota last year. “Four farmers were short but other growers took up the slack so there was no overall shortfall,” he said.


Mercy for Animals Burm said turkey growers appear to have escaped the


furor arising from a recent Mercy for Animals video showing excessive cruelty by a BC chicken catching crew. “The board office got no calls regarding the MFA


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video,” he told growers. Nevertheless, the video has prompted the BC SPCA to call for the poultry industry’s codes of practice for handling birds to be made law, just as codes of practice for handling dairy cattle became law following the MFA video showing abuse at Chilliwack Cattle Sales. Burm says the BC Farm Industry Review Board has also


asked all poultry boards to “make sure they’re dealing with this issue,” reminding growers they are ultimately responsible for what happens on their farms.


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