Canada’s $1.6 billion chicken industry is starting to understand some of the uncertainty that has faced beef producers since May 20, although the poultry outcome is far less severe.
A one-farm outbreak of avian flu in British Columbia in February has closed international markets to up to $125 million worth of export products and the industry is worried about the Canadian consumer reaction.
The price crash experienced by the beef industry after BSE was discovered will not happen because chicken prices are set in negotiations between Chicken Farmers of Canada and processors with cost of production a consideration. Still, weakening consumer demand would weaken prices.
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And the ban on exports is a hit on the industry’s image.
“That’s the question that we have and I think we all would say that’s the big apprehension for us right now, is how long are those bans going to stay in place,” CFC general manager Mike Dungate told the House of Commons agriculture committee Feb. 25.
The committee was hearing evidence on the impact of the B.C. outbreak, which is a milder form of an avian flu that has killed a number of people in Asia.
CFC and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have been working to assure Canadians it is not the more virulent strain and that people are at no risk.
At the committee meeting, industry officials praised CFIA but also suggested it should be working more closely with Canada’s poultry industry on crisis management.
“The CFIA needs to be cognizant of its responsibility to provide assurance and confidence to the industry and consumers whose concerns are not necessarily based on sound science,” said David Fuller, a Nova Scotia chicken producer and chair of CFC.
The leaders of the regulated, supply managed poultry industry also used the Parliament Hill appearance to point accusing fingers at the unregulated side of the industry for the spread of avian flu in North America.
Depending on provincial regulations, chicken producers often need a quota and regulation only when their flock surpasses 999 birds.
“Despite a significant effort of industry to put in place quick biosecurity measures and massive programs, their businesses are being put at risk by very small operators who are not taking similar action,” complained Canadian Broiler Hatching Egg Marketing Agency president Ed De Jong from B.C.
Meanwhile, the outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian flu in Texas has prompted the CFIA to stop all imports of poultry as meat and most poultry related products from that American state March 1.
