The Ontario
Independent Poultry Processors association is appealing to Ontario Premier and
Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne to immediately implement the
specialty-markets policy developed by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing
board.
That would
short-circuit an appeal that has been filed by the Association of Ontario
Chicken Processors, representing the large-volume processors, to the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeal Tribunal.
The AOCP says the
Ontario policy should not be implemented unless and until the Chicken Farmers
of Canada, the national agency over provincial boards, makes a decision on
proposals for a specialty-markets policy.
Alberta, British
Columbia and Ontario have been pushing hard for the policy, but Quebec is
opposed, apparently because it thinks it might lose market share.
Ontario
definitely thinks it would gain because there has been long-standing evidence
that Ontario consumers want more chicken, especially for niche markets such as
the Jewish community seeking kosher chicken and the Asian community seeking
Hong-Kong dressed (feet and head on) chicken.
John Slot, staff
member for the Ontario Independent Poultry Processors association, says in the
appeal to Wynne that the appeals tribunal process simply delays implementation
of the policy.
“It is an insult
to the consumers of Ontario (and) it is not for supply management to dictate to
what, where and when the consumers can have for their chicken, especially when
the chicken that they are looking for are for ethnic and cultural protocol,”
writes Slot.
He says the
national agency has no business interfering with how the Ontario marketing
board decides to assign the chickens the province is allowed to produce. It is
up to the provincial board, not the national agency, to decide whether it wants
to implement a specialty-markets policy.
The AOCP has
objected that the specialty market policy will “cannibalize” existing markets –
i.e. reduce demand for the chicken the big processing companies market.
The OIPP counters
that “by providing the consumers with more choices, there will be an increase
of chicken consumption in Ontario.
“More choices
will create some cannibalization in the market place in the future, as this is
market reality, but to make the statement that no cannibalization is allowed is
stating that this policy is dead in the water.”
“The OIPP is
asking that the Ontario agriculture minister steps up to the plate and gives a
clear direction to the CFO to implement this policy without any further delay, as
these appeals are time consuming and costly.
“This is not
about supply management, this is about the Ontario consumers should have access
to the chicken when, where and how they want it.
“It clearly begs
the question, who is the disruptive force in the Ontario Chicken industry.”
During a hearing
before the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, the AOCP accused Slot
and the OIPP of being a disruptive force. They succeeded in keeping Slot and
the OIPP off of a chicken-board advisory committee.
