BURLINGTON ON, September 18, 2015 - Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) today announced the launch of a new program to help fill evolving consumer demand for local Ontario chicken in niche markets and support smaller scale commercial farmers looking for more growing options.The Local Niche Chicken Markets Program is one of a portfolio of new programs resulting from the “Allocation of Growth“ consultations held by CFO earlier in the year.
The new application and quota-based Local Niche Markets Program will allow chicken farmers to grow between 6,000 and 60,000 chickens annually targeted at a well-defined discrete and distinct local market through various means including geographic identification, marketing channels, products, brands, and/or business approaches. Farmers entering this program will be required to hold between 1,000 and 10,000 units of production quota in order to participate. For those not in the new programs, the current minimum number of production quotas units required to begin commercial chicken farming in Ontario is 14,000. The Local Niche Markets program is intended to support those consumer markets in Ontario which are looking for new ways to access larger volumes of locally or regionally grown chicken.
"Our goal is to continue to ensure that evolving markets of all kinds are supported by well designed and well-regulated programs that are flexible enough to meet the ever changing needs of both Ontario farmers and consumers," said Henry Zantingh, Chair of Chicken Farmers of Ontario.
“CFO continues to find new ways to respond to and support our Ontario consumers," said Rob Dougans, President and CEO of CFO. "The Local Niche Program will offer innovative and entrepreneurial farmers the opportunity to fill new and emerging niche markets or markets looking for different types of locally grown chicken products."
The Local Niche Markets Program announcement follows on the heels of other recent CFO program announcements providing farmers with new commercial business opportunities to identify and fill local and emerging consumer markets for Ontario chicken. The Local Niche Markets program fits between the Artisanal Chicken program (through which farmers can grow between 600 and 3000 birds per year) and the conventional quota-based chicken growers program (requiring at least 14,000 units of quota or more than 90,000 birds per year). Volumes for the new growth programs will be supplied from a percentage of the future growth allocated to the Ontario market from the national supply management system for chicken each year.
CFO also offers other programs for chicken farmers such as the Family Food Program and the Specialty Breeds Program.
In addition to the Local Niche Markets program the CFO Board also announced that it has revised its New Entrant Farmer and New Entrant Processor programs. Details on all these programs are available by
clicking here.
For more information contact:
Michael Edmonds
Director, Communications and Government Relations
Email Michael
P: 289-288-4223