EFO opens new entrant program application period

Friday, April 4, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

Applications for Egg Farmers of Ontario’s New Entrant Quota Loan Pool are now being accepted for the 2014 program.

People can submit applications until May 30. Successful applicants will be required to buy quota to match the quota that’s loaned through the program. Each year, Egg Farmers loans up to 10,000 units of quota to the successful applicants or applicant based on a 1:2 ratio, which means that for every unit the new egg farmer in the program buys, two units are loaned, Egg Farmers says in a March 27 press release.

Egg Farmers public affairs director Bill Mitchell says there isn’t a minimum amount of quota program participants must buy “with the proviso that part of the business plan is viability” so if someone wanted to buy too small an amount of quota it wouldn’t be considered viable.

After 10 years, the loaned quota has to be returned in 10 annual installments of 10 per cent each year.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant and be a permanent resident of Ontario. In addition, people applying for the program can’t currently hold or in the past have held quota in any supply-managed sector. Priority will be given to people 18 to 45 years old.

Applications are reviewed by a selection committee made up of industry representatives with Egg Farmers acting as a resource for the committee. There is a $100 plus HST application fee for the program. Unsuccessful applicants must reapply in another year if they want to be considered for the program.

Applications forms are available at: www.eggfarmersofontario.ca/news-events.

The program began in 2011 and there were 84 applicants. There were 11 applicants in 2012 and last year there were 26 applicants, Mitchell says. In each of 2011 and 2012, there was one successful applicant selected to receive the quota loan, while last year there were two. BF