After six years of negotiations, the agreement is ‘a careful balance of give and take,’ says official
RED DEER — Chickens farmers are developing a new quota agreement that allows all provinces to expand production in an orderly fashion.
Alberta pulled out of the federal-provincial agreement on chicken production last year because it wanted a higher allocation amount.
A memorandum of understanding was signed last November after six years of negotiations.
“This agreement meaningfully settles Alberta’s allocation issue, and it will serve as a basis for Alberta’s re-entry into the federal-provincial agreement,” Alberta Chicken Producers chair Erna Ference told the organization’s annual meeting Jan. 24.
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Overall market demand and natural population growth are considered when assessing how much quota each province should receive.
Alberta and Ontario have long argued they received less quota than they should as their populations surged.
David Hyink, a director with Alberta Chicken Producers, said the agreement is the best solution at this time and should address growth for the next 10 years.
“We can model and we can guess, but how things are going to turn out three, five, 10 years from now is impossible to predict,” he said.
The entire supply management program could have unraveled if the system had maintained the status quo, he added.
Chicken Farmers of Canada chair Dave Janzen said the new proposal allows every province to expand.
“This agreement represents a careful balance of give and take all around,” he said.
“I firmly believe this is the best agreement we could reach because it was the only agreement we could reach in six years of work.”
Chicken Farmers of Canada executive director Mike Dungate said the provincial supervisory boards must approve the agreement, hopefully by spring.
Allocations consider gross domestic production, population growth and input costs to match production with demand.
Dungate said the industry has been growing steadily to meet growing consumer demand.
“We have been aggressively allocating chicken and we have seen because there have been low beef and pork supplies in North America, we have actually been increasing production significantly,” he said.
The Canadian population expands about one percent a year, and chicken supplies have kept pace.
“We increased our production by two percent in 2014. We will continue to do that,” he said.
