Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan is supporting a new national quota allocation agreement, even though it means foregoing future growth.
The new deal doesn’t mean chicken producers in the province won’t see new quota allocation, but expansion in the supply managed business might not come as fast as it has in the past.
“Over the course of 10 years, this will amount to roughly a million (fewer) kilograms of chicken in a province that right now is producing 57 million kg of chicken,” said Clinton Monchuk, chief executive officer of the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan. “Put into perspective, it’s extremely small.”
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He said the deal has been received well by producers but has drawn protests from two processors operating in the province.
The provincial agriculture ministry has confirmed that Sofina Foods and Prairie Pride Natural Foods are appealing the new agreement. The province’s Agri-Food Appeals Committee will hear the complaint.
The memorandum of understanding, which every provincial marketing board signed, came after six years of negotiations. It will see 55 percent of future growth based on “provincial comparative advantage factors,” which include population growth and quota use.
Producers in Alberta and Ontario stand to gain the most from the 10-year deal.
“Lots of consultation took place. It wasn’t something we just pulled out of our back pocket and threw on the wall,” said Monchuk.
“It was something that was negotiated, and compromise was needed to get a solution.”
Monchuk told the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan meeting that Sask-atchewan has been allocated 777,000 kilograms of new production over the last four eight-week production cycles. It would have been given 71,000 kilograms less under the new formula.
Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan is still forecasting growth of 3.5 percent for this year.
“Seventy-one thousand kg in four cycles works out to about 121 birds per farm per cycle,” he said.
“That’s three-tenths of nothing.”
The province has had a higher growth rate than other provinces since 2000, he added.
Alberta Chicken Producers had pulled out of the federal-provincial agreement in 2014, citing issues with quota allocation. This deal, once it is signed by the provincial supervisory boards that oversee the supply managed sector in each province, will bring Alberta back into the fold.
“As long as you have all of the 10 provinces agreeing to a way to allocate chicken in the future, then everybody is going to be together,” said Monchuk. “Once you have slivers going off — Alberta leaving the agency, possibly some other province leaving in the future — that puts into jeopardy the whole system.”
Monchuk’s analysis shows that producers in B.C. and Quebec would have seen the largest drops in new allocation, but every province would still gain quota.
Quota allocations have been more aggressive recently as high beef and pork prices prompt consumers to buy more poultry products.
“Those that think this agreement needs to be tweaked a little bit to better address their own concerns must do so with the clear realization that it will unravel the whole thing,” said Yvon Cyr, vice-chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada.
“This agreement represents a careful balance of give and take all around. I firmly believe that this agreement is the best agreement that we could reach because it is the only agreement that could be reached in that six years of work.”
dan.yates@producer.com
