No fee increase and some new directions

Monday, December 29, 2008

by SUSAN MANN

Sheep producer Keith Salisbury believes farmers’ complaints about how the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency operates has led to some positive changes.

“I think the little stir that we made has actually shaken up the whole organization,” says Salisbury, who along with others complained this past summer to the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission about the agency’s focus and communication practices.

He says even though the agency has been around for at least 20 years, its still very hard to buy local lamb at local grocery stores. Locally, the eastern Ontario producer is addressing the problem by setting up an Eastern Ontario Lamb Cooperative that will allow lamb producers to oversee all phases of the value chain and ensure a year-round supply of lamb products.

Salisbury believes the agency should be working harder on marketing. He says he’s pleased with the Commission’s response to the producers’ complaints. And he’s already noticed some changes in the way the agency does business.

“Now they’re actually thinking they should be reporting back to the producer,” he says. “Before they had their own agenda and they never consulted with producers.”

The Commission met with agency representatives Dec. 10 to discuss producers’ feedback gathered by Commission representatives at regional lamb producer meetings last summer. Both Elmer Buchanan, who was acting chair of the Commission at the time of the meeting, and Markus Wand, agency chair, said the meeting was positive.

The agency received a summary of comments Commission representatives heard at the regional meetings, Wand says. The Commission has suggested the agency should focus on strategic planning, communication with producers, and human resources management at the board and staff levels. It has recommended timelines.

“They gave us really good direction,” Wand says.

Buchanan emphasizes that the agency isn’t planning a fee increase. He believes it was this issue that prompted farmers to complain.

Wand confirms the check-off fee is staying at $1.55 per head. “I don’t think anyone wants to see an increase.” But some producers favour an increase because they’d like to see the agency do more, he says. “They feel a check-off increase would allow that.”

What surprised Wand from the producer comments? It’s that producers thought the agency should spend most of its resources on advocacy, like commenting on pending government regulations or safety net programs.

He believes producers want the agency to try and improve the entire industry rather than trying to push lamb into markets.

“There’s a pretty strong feeling, especially over towards Eastern Ontario, a lot of people don’t want to see us go toward single desk selling,” Wand notes, adding that idea wasn’t really discussed by the agency.

On the human resources front, the agency’s new general manager, Murray Hunt of Troy, starts Jan. 5. BF

- with files from Mary Baxter