APRIL 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


9


Decision day looms for chicken pricing appeal Formula under pressure as national chicken production reaches an all-time high


by DAVID SCHMIDT VANCOUVER – Chicken growers and


processors are both anxiously awaiting the BC Farm Industry Review Board’s decision on the BC Chicken Marketing Board’s pricing formula for periods A151to A156. Last summer, the BC Chicken Growers


Association appealed the formula as being insufficient as it does not account for the full cost of feed and other inputs. The Primary Processors Association countered that the new formula generates too high a price, claiming the consultation process was a sham.


Hearings were held last fall and FIRB has


yet to release its decision. There’s not much time left as the formula ends June 8 and the BCCMB is already working on a new formula for period A157 and beyond. “Pricing in BC can be an uphill battle,” admitted BCCGA president Dale Krahn during the association’s annual meeting in Vancouver, February 28. It is also a costly battle. The BCCGA’s 2018 financial statements showed accounting and legal expenditures of more than $130,000, most related to the pricing appeal. The BCCMB spent even more. Its financial statements listed professional fees of over $300,000 in 2018, compared to less than $60,000 in 2017. Like the association, the fees were mostly related to a series of FIRB appeals. Krahn noted Ontario is also developing a new pricing formula. Since the BC


DALE KRAHN


formula is based on Ontario’s price, any changes to Ontario’s formula and/or its cost-of-production will have an impact on BC’s live price. That shouldn’t be, one Okanagan grower said. Speaking on behalf of his


fellow Okanagan growers, he called pricing off Ontario “a fake price,” demanding the board develop a made-in-BC live price based on costs in this province. He went on to criticize the board’s elected grower directors, saying “we don’t


feel they are pulling for us.” One questions how much pull they have since only two of BCCMB’s five


HARVEY SASAKI


directors are elected growers. Krahn hopes that will change as growers met with BC agriculture minister Lana Popham three times last year. Among other issues, they asked her to make the board’s governance model match the other three feather boards, which each have three to four elected growers and an appointed chair.


Not all bad


It was not all bad news. Krahn began the meeting by pointing out growers have more chicken in their barns than ever before. “Canadian chicken production is at an all- time high,” he noted. New BCCMB chair Harvey Sasaki expects that to continue, saying meat production continues to grow “despite the Canada Food Guide and despite an increase in demand for


plant-based food. “We live in a region that eats meat,” he said, adding poultry’s share continues


to grow and now represents almost 50% of total Canadian meat consumption. “Chicken is the first choice of Canadians,” Chicken Farmers of Canada chair


Benoît Fontaine added. “We have now seen growth in demand nine years in a row.”


Not all of that demand will be met by Canadian growers. When the new


CP-TPP and CUSMA trade agreements are fully implemented, chicken imports will equal more than 10% of Canada’s current production, CFC executive director Michael Laliberte told growers. He therefore praised CFC’s “Raised by a Canadian Farmer” promotion as helping to drive demand for Canadian, rather than imported, chicken. “Canadians want Canadian chicken more than ever,” he said. Krahn said BC’s two Poultry in Motion trailers are also helping to spread a


positive message about BC and, by extension, Canadian chicken. The program has been so well-received, the association has ordered a third trailer which will go to schools, fairs and other events on Vancouver Island. Like the Fraser Valley trailer, the new Vancouver Island trailer will be cost-shared with the BC Broiler Hatching Egg Producers Association.


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