Special egg production approved

The Farm Products Council of Canada has approved a marketing board program to reduce reliance on imports for the egg processing industry.

Burnbrae Holdings and Gray Ridge eggs are the dominant egg processing companies in Canada and have in the past used supplementary import permits to meet their needs.

However, avian influenza has hit United States egg production hard resulting in much higher prices for U.S. eggs.

The Egg Farmers of Canada national agency wrote to Farm Products Canada that “the STMRQ (Special Temporary Market Requirement Quota)

category was created as a fiscally prudent risk mitigation tool to increase domestic supply for the processing industry, lessening reliance on imports, specifically supplementary requests.”

“STMRQ focuses on identifying eligible flocks to produce beyond the typical flock cycle where facility and other conditions have been met.”

“Flocks participating in STMRQ do so on a temporary basis in response to urgent requirements in the processing marketplace.”

“As such, STMRQ production is dedicated to processors and subject to the prevailing pricing under the Industrial Products (IP) Program; no eggs produced under STMRQ are destined to the table market.”

The quotas are administered by provincial egg marketing boards.