David Fuller, Canada’s longest-serving farm leader, has stepped down after 13 years as chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada.
He was replaced yesterday during the CFC annual meeting in Ottawa by Dave Janzen, an Abbotsford, B.C., chicken producer.
The change in leadership comes as the Canadian chicken industry continues modest growth and remains above its historic one billion kilogram production level even as rising input costs squeeze producer margins.
Fuller, a Canning, N.S., producer, was elected chair of CFC in 1999 and served through a tumultuous decade of World Trade Organization negotiations, avian influenza outbreaks, chicken industry quota challenges and a period of sustained growth that saw chicken become the preferred meat protein of Canadian consumers.
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He is one of Nova Scotia’s biggest chicken producers, and this year becomes a shareholder in a new provincial poultry processing plant that will take his production and help sustain the province’s declining chicken industry.
In the summer of 2010, Fuller said in an interview that his run as a national farm leader would end some day, but not just then.
“At some point this will wind down, but I’m not planning anything yet. The main reason I do this is to give something back. The supply management system has been good for me and my family and I want to see it maintained.”
Last year, he decided the time had come and stepped aside this week.
Fuller said in an interview today that he leaves believing the supply management system will survive, strongly supported by the current federal government.
