Peak Calls Truce In Spud War

“This is in place right away. We’re not going to enforce anything else.” – LARRY MCINTOSH Trevor Schreimer figured something was up when he and other members of the Manitoba Potato Coalition met with Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers earlier this month to lobby against Peak of the Market’s new regulation governing small potato growers. “He

Chicken Dispute Offers Cautionary Tale

Ontario and Quebec are embroiled in a chicken war reminiscent of trade squabbles between provinces that led to the creation of supply management more than 40 years ago. Chicken Farmers of Ontario has placed a moratorium on interprovincial movement of chicken to stem a bidding war between processors at home and in next-door Quebec. The


New Levy Surprises Supply-Managed Producers

“It simply comes down to an added cost on the farm.” – DAVID WI ENS, DFM Manitoba’s supply management industry has been stunned by a new provincial surcharge on quota transfers. The NDP government has slapped a two per cent levy on the value of successful quota exchanges for dairy, eggs and poultry. The measure

Ag Minister Blocks Ontario Pork Ruling For Review

Ontario’s agriculture minister has intervened against a provincial tribunal’s ruling that allowed hog farmers a “negative option” to sell hogs through a single marketing desk. Provincial legislation gives Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell the authority to “confirm, vary or rescind” a decision made by her ministry’s appeal tribunal or send it back for a new hearing,


Peak On Shaky Ground

JOHN MORRISS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Apologies to anyone in the group who may think otherwise, but it’s probably fair to say that most of the people attending the recent Growing Local conference in Winnipeg would be favourable to the idea of collective marketing. They would tend to support measures to counterbalance the influence of large food-processing

Small Potato Regulations Draw Fire

“I think the exemptions will absolutely be too narrow.” – TREVOR SCHREIMER Aconference on locally grown food last week strongly criticized Peak of the Market’s attempts to bring small unregulated potato growers under the marketing board’s authority. Larry McIntosh, Peak’s president and CEO, spent much of his time during a panel discussion defending the board


Growers Allege Discrimination

Barry Dutka was tired in 2003 when he sold the Selkirk potato farm that had been in his family for more than 70 years and retired as a director with Peak of the Market. But it wasn’t only a shortage of on-farm labour that prompted his departure from the industry. Dutka, 57, had had enough

What Is Peak Of The Market?

Peak of the Market (formerly the Manitoba Vegetable Producers’ Marketing Board) is a farmer-owned marketing board which sells Manitoba-grown vegetables in Canada, the United States and occasionally overseas. Peak (as it’s commonly called) operates under the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Act, along with other provincial marketing boards for milk, eggs, chicken and turkey, which are


Peak Cites Confidentiality

Annual reports from other provincial marketing boards are available to the public. But not Peak’s. Its title page reads: “This booklet contains confidential information concerning the operations of Peak of the Market and is provided solely to registered producers of Peak of the Market. It is not to be copied or distributed to other parties.”

Marketing Board Or Private Club?

Debate and controversy are nothing new to orderly marketing. Whether it is supply management, as in the case of dairy or poultry, or single-desk selling, as in the case of the Canadian Wheat Board, there is a legitimate discussion over whether the public good these systems generate outweigh their costs to personal freedom. There are