First new poultry processor gets chicken board approval

Monday, August 11, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The first poultry processor to be approved under Chicken Farmers of Ontario’s New Entrant Processor program will start processing chicken for the halal market in January.

Sheik Halal Poultry Farms, located in Grand Valley, already processes a range of other poultry products, including ducks, quails, partridges and turkeys at its plant. But starting with the A-128 quota period, which runs from Jan. 1, to Feb. 21, 2015, the company will begin processing chicken too.

As part of Chicken Farmers of Ontario’s new entrant processor program, Chicken Farmers provides successful applicants under the program with a minimum of 50,000 kilograms of calculated base up to a maximum of 100,000 kilograms, communications and government relations director Michael Edmonds says by email.

Calculated base is a processor’s share in kilograms of the Ontario chicken market and is determined by Chicken Farmers. Processors must have calculated base to buy their chicken supply from Ontario farmers and they must also have a Class A license issued by Chicken Farmers.

For new entrant processors approved under the program, their new entrant calculated base is non transferable. The program was created as part of Chicken Farmers distribution of supply policy.

In addition to getting calculated base, the new entrant processor will also have access to all business and transactional services Chicken Farmers provides to all processors, Edmonds notes.

He says the primary market for Ontario-grown and processed halal chicken is Ontario’s growing Muslim community. That community is estimated to be about five per cent of Ontario’s 13.6 million people and more than seven per cent of the 6.054 million people in the Greater Toronto Area.

“The successful applicant will have met all the financial and business requirements set out in the board’s policy and should be well positioned to support its target market,” Edmonds says.

According to the board’s policy, new entrant processor program applicants had to submit a comprehensive business plan that included a marketing plan, provide verification of their relevant experience as a meat processor and proof that they have or are in the process of getting either their Canadian Food Inspection Agency or provincial inspection approvals along with confirmation from a financial institution they will be able to provide a letter of credit. In addition, applicants had to submit a range of other information, including chicken catching arrangements, payment procedures to farmers and other things.

The chicken board will be accepting new applications for the 2015 program until Oct. 31. Edmonds says the board doesn’t disclose how many applications it receives each year.

Edmonds says Chicken Farmers launched the program because it continues to look for innovative ways to grow the chicken industry in Ontario. The organization also has a new entrant program for chicken farmers to help new producers enter the industry. The two programs are just “two ways the board is fulfilling” the mandate to grow the provincial chicken industry.

The new entrant processor program was launched two years ago. The new entrant producer program was launched in 2012 and so far four farm families have become chicken farmers through the program.

Officials with Sheik Halal Poultry Farms couldn’t be reached for comment. BF