WINNIPEG – Manitoba egg producers are moving out of the frying pan and into the microwave.
At their annual meeting last week they learned how changes in consumer demand and world trade will fundamentally change the way they do business.
Similar to other agricultural industries, the trend is toward more processed and value-added products and more competitive trade.
Neil Currie, chief executive officer of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, told producers they will have five years of relative stability to “grow the market.”
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Currie said the Sectoral Advisory Group on Eggs agreement, signed by industry stakeholders in the wake of international trade talks, removed export subsidies but also protects the industry until the year 2000. Until then, he said effects at the producer level will likely be “barely noticeable.”
Harold Froese, chair of the Manitoba Egg Producers Marketing Board, said farmers will use the five years to develop their market for processed eggs.
About 40 percent of Canadians’ meals are eaten in restaurants, which use more processed eggs. Many home-cooked meals rely on processed foods zapped in the microwave rather than the frypan, the group was told.
Froese said Manitoba producers can produce a dozen eggs cheaper than any other province because feed and land is inexpensive, and most of the 220 producers are concentrated in one area.
That’s why the largest processor in the country, Canadian Inovatech, is in Winnipeg.
“Whether the tariffs stay where they are, or whether they go down, or whatever they do, we think that the key to our future success is to encourage the development of that further-processed market,” Froese said.
