Fundraising tool | Producers missing an opportunity
Laurent Pellerin, Farm Products Council of Canada chair, urged Canadian farmers last week to consider using a 19-year-old legislative tool allowing them to raise money from imports to fund research and promotion.
Under the Farm Products Agencies Act, national promotion-research agencies can be established for commodities with the power to collect levies on all imports as long as they have a similar research levy collected on domestic sales.
With potential revenues of millions of dollars, the money could be used to fund research and promotion campaigns for their product.
Read Also
First annual Ag in Motion Junior Cattle Show kicks off with a bang
Ag in Motion 2025 had its first annual junior cattle show on July 15. The show hosted more than 20…
Canadian exports into other markets including the United States have paid a similar levy for years.
“If there is a vehicle out there that can advance producer interests, it should be looked at,” the former president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture told the annual CFA meeting.
In fact, only the Canadian cattle industry has used the legislation and an industry leader offered an explanation — it is a complicated and difficult process.
“It’s kind of like a spider web,” New Brunswick Cattle Producers’ chair Jennifer MacDonald told the meeting. “If you’re thinking about it, have fun.”
The cattle industry received approval from the FPCC in 2002 to create an agency. The national council oversees the agencies.
But after a decade, the Canadian beef national check-off agency does not yet have the ability to collect levies on imports. It has required long and intricate negotiations to get all provinces to sign on with the support of their governments. The last two provinces didn’t join until 2010.
Then the Beef Information Centre and the Canada Beef Export Federation were disbanded to unite as Canada Beef Inc.
Negotiations over who would collect the levies were a shock, she said.
The assumption was that the Canadian Border Services Agency would collect the levies. At first CBSA said it was not equipped for it and had no mandate.
But FPCC intervened to say it was a CBSA mandate.
The border service agency then told the beef industry it would charge up to $1.5 million annually to collect fees estimated at $800,000 to $1 million.
“It was back to the drawing board,” said MacDonald.
The process has been “slow and painful,” said MacDonald.
But she also retains her enthusiasm for the concept and she urged other commodity sectors to consider it.
