Achi news desk-
The price of chicken in BC could climb higher due to a decision made by the state’s farm industry review board.
The board approved a proposal that will affect the price of poultry at the farm level, which could lead to higher costs for consumers at the grocery store and when eating out.
The BC Chicken Marketing Board presented the proposal and said it was a “new pricing formula” and not a price increase.
“The pricing formula is based on breaking even for an efficient BC chicken grower,” said Woody Siemens, executive director of the BC Chicken Marketing Board.
“The chicken board sets the minimum price at the farm gate, the price a farmer receives for growing chicken.”
The board said it does not control retail prices, restaurant prices or prices set by processors.
“Under supply management, farmers receive a set price for the food they produce, which represents a fraction of the final price,” Siemens said.
Siemens said the biggest cost for chicken farmers is the price of feed, which has increased significantly for farmers.
The price paid to a farmer for chicken closely tracks feed prices, according to the board.
“It is important to note that the live chicken price that a farmer receives in BC has decreased by 12 cents per kilogram compared to a year ago, which is a decrease of -5.65 percent,” Siemens said.
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However, the CEO of a small restaurant chain reported that its prices for chicken had increased by 18 percent in two years. Adeel Jahangir, CEO of Chicken World Canada, said it has had to increase nearly six percent to keep up with the rising cost.
“It’s going to be very difficult to carry on with the same speed,” he told Global News.
Lower mainland chickens average between $9 and $11 per kilogram.
BC wholesale and retail chicken prices are already on average the highest in the country, according to Restaurants Canada. He said he buys about 40 percent of all chicken grown in BC.
Restaurants Canada said consumers should expect to pay more.
“When we initially heard about the proposal for an increase of 17 – to 25 per cent per kilo of live chicken, we extrapolated through the process that it would roughly lead to an increase of around 10 per cent in the year next,” said Mark von Schellwitz, vice-president of Restaurants Canada.
Across the border in Bellingham, Wash., a whole chicken often sells for less than C$4 a kilogram.
“It is difficult for us to even survive if we do not increase prices at all,” Jahangir said.
With the cost of living already so high, Chicken World’s CEO hopes the government will consider incentives to ease more of the poultry price pain.
Dalhousie Agri-Food Analytics Lab director Sylvain Charlebois told Global News that this will be the first time in BC that chicken will be priced through a BC-based formula. Prior to this, prices were set in Ontario.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
