by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Burgessville-based Bloxslea Farms Inc, is near the top, both alphabetically and numerically, of the list of creditors of Quality Meat Packers, which filed a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal for two companies pursuant to Section 50 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act a week ago. Quality Meat Packers Limited listed debts of $40.5 million. Toronto Abattoirs limited shows $28.9 million owing.
Owed $601,413 for market pigs, as well as a bit over $5,000 for trucking, Bloxslea Farms Inc. is the largest single farm creditor. Bloxslea markets hogs raised from about 2,000 sows and also buys 7,000 weaner pigs a month to raise in contract finishing barns.
“I was suspicious,” owner Jim Bloxsidge recalls, on Thursday evening, when regular direct deposits weren’t made to the farm’s bank account on March 31 and April 1, for pigs shipped in the last half of the previous week. “I was told it was some kind of a problem with the automatic transfer. There was a glitch somewhere in the program . . . . They did have a glitch before a month or two ago and a few days later everything was fine.”
Not this time.
So Bloxsidge continued to ship hogs and remains unpaid for deliveries on March 26 and 27, as well as March 31 to April 3. (The Quality plant in Toronto has been idle on Fridays for some time because of a shortage of hogs.)
“We have been told that we would receive (monies for the earlier shipped hogs) but I haven’t seen anything.” Bloxsidge says he is not alone among producers who weren’t paid for hogs shipped March 26 and 27.
Quality notified Bloxsidge last Thursday afternoon about a meeting on Friday of “larger” producers “in a private place” in Tavistock where a complex story was outlined.
“I can’t explain what they explained,” said Bloxsidge. “The funds were not there. They were not going to pay and they wanted to reorganize. We’ve been waiting to see what goes on.
“In the meantime, we have to find a place for our pigs. We already ship loads to Quebec . . . We have a good record with Quebec and they were glad to accept more loads.”
What happens now? “I don’t really have a clue.”
Bloxsidge says: “Even though they owe me money I am out in the dark. I wonder if I should get a lawyer to see if I can get some of my money back.” He says that his farm has just been through a porcine epidemic diarrhea outbreak; it was one of the first farms in Ontario, in spite of precautions.
“We had our own truck wash bay and everything and we were trying to make sure that we didn’t get it and we ended up feeding it to the pigs through the baby pig feed.
“I’m glad the pig prices are up there because it is going to take that to keep above water.” Before that, sow production had just got back to “normal numbers” for production after a PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) outbreak.
Bloxsidge says his farm has had a long relationship with Quality Meat Packers. “They’ve been good to me, taking hogs and extra hogs and good deals but, ouch, it still hurts when you don’t get paid for a couple of thousand hogs.”
Bloxsidge ships some hogs to Conestoga Packers, a co-op in Breslau, as well as to a Quebec processor. He says the co-op at Breslau could ramp up production. He doesn’t know about the status of Sofina in Hamilton, Ontario’s pork processor. BF
Further coverage of the situation at Quality Meats will follow.
Comments
You have (had) three buyers now there are two. The buyers therefore make the rules. They make the credit terms. Producers lack the normal business choices to investigate and grant or refuse to grant credit. What normal business would give $600,000 credit to a buyer without demanding financial information and perhaps guarantees? Can producers band together to level the playing field? Not likely. So either government steps in or producers can wait for history to repeat. Selling out of province without guarantees just makes insolvency harder to deal with.
Do you remember Ontario Pork's authority? Maybe we should have let them do their job to protect us instead of listening to packer promises that we usually broken.
There was just a handful of producers and the 3P members that wanted OP to give up control, didn't agree with it then and still don't think it was a good idea. I asked Doug Ahrens OP director at our annual meeting if all the direct contracting,closing yards,ect. has benefited the average pork producer as producer numbers just keep getting smaller. His answer was "I am not going there and I was asked to be on the board for a reason"
I fully expected a non-producer payment but more from an American packer than an Ontario one. I still hope for the best with Quality ,as we don't know all the facts a lot is speculation at this point. We need each other . kg kimball
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It might come to point where directors wish they were not on the board. This mouse has a long tail, it will come out who did not respond to what was known.
It be the ministry, the board or both.
US Packers and stockyards act requires packers to be bonded. Problem solved!!!
Are you kidding!!! We had better protection with Ontario Pork's powers. Remember letters of credit?
Many business accounts go 90 or 120 days before they pay . Might be some thing Ag will soon have to get used to when dealing with livestock sales to packers .
Can you name any commodities where producers wait 90 or 120 days?
Ontario Pork did not get letters of credit for the major packers when they had monopoly powers.... they reviewed financial statements. 2013 statements would not yet be completed...especially if there was complications.....Ontario Pork marketing authority would not have solved these potential loses to the industry.....
I always admire people who don't feel the need for secrecy. People like Jim here deserve a lot of credit for shedding light on a situation everyone in agriculture needs to understand.
Who is the strongest of us all?? Nobody on its own. We need to stand together.
In house monkey talk, I can't explain what they tried to explained.
The board at that time didn't put any effort in to maintain the power of marketing.
Several of the people / groups that appear on the list of creditors made strong presentations @ hearings before the FPMB to dismantle the collective marketing / bargaining power of the board. And they succeeded.
After reading all the previous posts its apparent that producers need to realize that they never had guaranteed payment when OP had its monopoly powers. OP NEVER had letters of credit from the three major processors, leaving producers to be unsecured creditors to these major processors. What's even more pathetic is that these same producers who call for unified action to "bring back the good old days" will at the end of their fiscal year end write thousands of dollars of cheques to their premix, fuel, feed, fertilizer, and seed corn supplier to avoid income taxes and become the very thing they despise, an unsecured creditor. Perhaps a peek in the mirror is warranted before they slam their fellow producer.
No one is slamming there fellow producers as it is not good for either the producers or packers when you have a QMP problem come up . There was several buyers with letters of credit and OP can confirm on who other than QMP with there long standing relationship did not supply one. The question is by going too direct contracts,abolishing single desk selling and OP closing or selling all the marketing yards has it been a net benefit to the majority of the producers? OP has always had great leadership and vision so I fail too understand why some wanted and succeeded in tearing it down. No one has enough clout to do it all on there own. The pig business used to be something a young person could start into at any size and supplement there income but as it is now the ones living in low density pig areas have too have enough to get a trucker too come too the farm as there is no local shipping points. On all levels the problems of QMP is just bad for everyone and anyone shipping too any plant should be first in line for payment and not a unsecured creditor.
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