TORONTO – With 1995 deadlines looming, agriculture ministers prodded farmers in the supply managed sectors to speed up the reforming of their marketing systems in line with new trade rules and market demands.
Federal and provincial ministers received reports Monday indicating that in dairy, poultry and egg sectors, negotiations during the past year have produced some compromise and the outlines of the next generation of supply management.
But in every case, more compromises are needed.
“Progress has been made but more needs to be done,” federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said at the close of the Dec. 19 ministers’ meeting. “None of this is particularly easy but compared to where we were Dec. 16, 1993…we have come a long, long way.”
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Goodale predicted all the agencies will make the necessary changes in time to meet new world trade rules that take effect in 1995. The new rules change import controls to a tariff system and ban export subsidies of the type used by dairy and egg agencies.
Ministers hope their political support is the tonic that affected sectors need to finish reforms and accept painful adjustments.
The proposed changes have created east-west splits and regional discontent that will have to be healed if new national systems are to work well.
As proposed by industry-government committees, the direction of change would include:
- CHICKEN: relaxed production controls, a 20 percent increase in the 1995 production base and added ability of provinces to exceed their allocation by up to eight percent if processors identify the increased demand.
- EGGS: a five-year plan would limit to 10-cents-per-dozen the consumer levy that could be charged to subsidize the cost of selling eggs to the processing trade at less than cost-of-production.
Producers for the first time would be able to contract with processors to exceed their quota for processing eggs.
- DAIRY: one of the most contentious issues for an industry that faces new rules on Aug. 1 is a proposal that there be one national price pool that would have producers of higher-priced fluid milk subsidize producers of lower-priced industrial milk.
The western provinces object while Ontario and Quebec, where most of the industrial milk is produced, support the idea.
