Supply managed groups want to examine price increases throughout the supply chain to determine the impact on agriculture
RED DEER — Alberta commodity groups want to learn the true costs to their businesses since the provincial carbon levy went into effect earlier this year.
The supply managed groups of chicken, turkey, eggs, hatching eggs and dairy as well as Alberta Pork want to work with the province to examine the added costs from the levy, which charges $20 per tonne on emissions this year and $30 per tonne next year.
“We want to quantify the full impact of the carbon levy by its full implementation in 2018,” said Erna Ference, chair of the Alberta Chicken Producers.
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The chicken producers group has already conducted an energy utilization survey and estimated farmers’ natural gas bills would go up an average of $6,500 a year.
It means an increase of 1.7 cents per kilogram of chicken produced, or a total of $1.4 million in additional costs to primary chicken farmers.
That added cost is difficult for producers to pass on to consumers and still remain competitive with other provinces, she said Feb. 28 at the poultry industry conference in Red Deer.
A funding proposal for the study was submitted in February, said chicken producers manager Karen Kirkwood.
The study wants members of commodity groups to submit information on their added costs since the levy was imposed.
“It will quantify all the direct and indirect costs in the supply chain right from feed and chicks up to processing and transportation,” Kirkwood said.
“It will go through the whole value chain including the transportation right up to processing. It will not only be the natural gas costs but the trickle down costs of electricity and fuel costs because many of our producers do not use marked fuel, which is exempt,” she said.
“We want to work with government on this. They need to have that data to understand what the impacts on agriculture are going to be.”
Executive directors and commodity group presidents have been meeting with government departments to come up with solutions to deal with the added costs.
A March 9 meeting has been set with Alberta Agriculture and the climate change department to discuss how to compete and work in a low energy company, said Ference.
