Chicken Farmers of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada and CanadaGAP on behalf of fruit and vegetable producers have already received the designation.

“This recognition represents the culmination of the work of the TFC board of directors, the boards of directors in the TFC eight member provinces across the country, and Canadian turkey farmers,” said Darren Ference, TFC chair.

“Consumers can trust that our high-quality Canadian turkey is produced through stringent standards,” he said. “Our systemic and preventive approach to food safety is based on internationally accepted standards and conforms to federal, provincial and territorial legislation, policy and protocols.”

CFIA said, “In completing the recognition process, the TFC has demonstrated a strong ongoing commitment to working with federal and provincial governments to produce the safest, highest-quality turkey products possible.”

Twelve other commodity groups include cattle, pork, eggs, veal, sheep and honey as well as the Canada Grains Council and the Canadian Trucking Alliance are working on achieving full compliance under the program. The program’s goal is safeguarding Canada’s food supply while continuing to boost consumer confidence and international acceptance of Canadian products.

CFIA said the recognition serves as a formal declaration that the TFC on-farm food safety program is “technically sound in that it promotes the production of safe food at the farm level and adheres to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.

“It also supports the effective implementation, administration, delivery and maintenance of this technically sound food safety program,” CFIA said. “This recognition is important to turkey farmers, because more than ever, consumers want to know how their food is produced,” said Ference. “We’re proud to demonstrate our high standards.”

CanadaGAP received its designation last September for demonstrating the more than 3,000 companies in the horticulture sector registered with the organization had implemented effective preventive controls, including requirements for growing, harvesting and packing fresh produce for interprovincial trade or export.

“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is proud to be working side by side with industry partners to enhance food safety for Canadian families from farm to fork,” said Lyzette Lamondin, CFIA’s executive director, food safety and consumer protection.

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While the stock of surplus birds was lower this January than last, several factors continue to hamper the flow of turkey through processors and into the market.

Bill Uruski, chairman of the Manitoba Turkey Producers, told the organization’s members that the results could mean increased levies during the organization’s annual general meeting in Winnipeg last week.

“Given our current storage stocks of turkey in Canada, our national directors have had to cut production. We as a provincial board are having a difficult time in reconciling our lower revenues with our current levies, as they relate to our ongoing commitments of serving you, our producers,” Uruski said. “We are continuing to examine options to operate with less, but there may come a time where we will have to bite the bullet and increase our levies to remain financially solvent to meet our legislated responsibilities.”

He went on to say that an increase isn’t on the table at this juncture, but that it could be in the future. Ideally, Uruski would like to see changes made to the national allocation system that would reduce storage stocks and hold processors accountable when they request more turkey than they utilize.

Ten years ago, Turkey Farmers of Canada (TFC) brought in a duel allocation system that differentiated between whole birds and birds destined for further processing. Uruski said concerns that processors may underutilize their allocations were raised at the time, but that the decision was made to rely on an honour system rather than an enforcement system at that time.

“Having processors dictate the supply required the opportunity to overshoot it without any consequences, we are now tasked with finding a way to make this further processing component of the allocation system actually function with responsibilities and repercussions on processors who have not fulfilled their obligations after receiving the allocation,” he said. “Not having those measures in place has led to the current buildup of storage stocks and price pressure on all segments of our industry.”

TFC chairman Mark Davies said that a review of the current allocation system began about a year ago and changes will be made in the near future. He added that most allocation policies have a lifespan of six or seven years, so with a decade under its belt the current system has seen many market changes take place that need to be addressed.

“Right now, everything is on the table,” said Davies, adding the board is looking at how to best build on the elements of the system that are working well. Ideally the new allocation system will strengthen the current honour-based system and add teeth to the agreement, he said.

“I think this is something we have always sort of dabbled with around the edges, to put some parameters around the requests that (processors) make when they are looking for new product, so basically, if you are requesting a certain amount of product, that you be responsible for it and that it doesn’t affect the market moving forward,” said Davies.

As of January 1, Canadian turkey stocks were at 21.1 million kilograms, down from 24.8 million kilograms the year before. An improvement, but not one large enough to prevent a reduction in quota allocations, Davies said, something that required some tough decisions and a lot of co-operation from provincial organizations.

“Our quota allocations for 2018 set last November are a good example of this — of all of us setting aside partisan desire and doing what must be done. As difficult as it is, we face the facts that market conditions were difficult. The disappearance of whole birds at Thanksgiving was disappointing and as a result of that the stocks remain high,” he said. “No one liked the idea of reducing quota, but we recognized that was the action that had to be taken.”

TFC set the preliminary 2018-19 whole bird allocation at 63 million kilograms, which was down three million kilograms from the previous 2017-18 allocation. However, further processing allocations remain unchanged at 83.9 million kilograms.

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With 2015 closing stocks sitting at 19 million kilograms, Phil Boyd said a reduction in the national quota allotment is a possibility. Closing stocks in 2014 came in at 14.7 million kilograms.

“What we’ve seen is that consumption of whole birds has stayed relatively flat, it’s not even quite on par with population growth,” said Boyd, Turkey Farmers of Canada’s executive director. That fact, combined with less emphasis on turkey at the retail level during the 2015 holiday season, has resulted in a greater surplus, he said.

“Retailers weren’t featuring turkeys as much as they had, in terms of price point, so we saw a bit of a decline through the fall markets on Christmas sales and we ended up with a bit more in frozen inventory at the start of the year,” said Boyd. “So the processors that carry that inventory are making a reasonable point that we probably need to reduce our volume of whole birds for the coming production year.”

Bill Uruski of the Manitoba Turkey Producers said retailers often use whole turkeys as a loss leader during the lead-up to the holiday season, but he questioned how prudent that was in the long term.

“One of the contributing factors of these increased stocks is that the large retailers reduced the amount of featuring during the festive season by using turkey as a loss leader,” he told producers gathered for the organization’s annual general meeting in Winnipeg last week. “While in the past this type of marketing did pull through a lot of birds, it’s difficult to understand how this type of marketing strategy benefits our industry in the long run.”

Customers who are used to purchasing underpriced turkeys in the lead-up to holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter, may balk at buying turkey when the true price of production is reflected, he said.

“This certainly puts all turkey processors under pressure to cut prices and guess where that leads to next? Our doorstep,” Uruski said.

But reduced holiday sales aren’t the only factor reflected in the current increase in frozen inventory. Uruski said there was also a slight increase in production in 2015.

“But with this kind of inventory, it’s hard at this point in time to see any growth for the 2016-17 marketing year. In fact I can safely say that there is mounting pressure to lower our national allocation for this coming year,” he said.

As for what a reduced quota allocation might look like, Boyd said it is still too early to tell. Processors and board members will have to discuss the issues at hand before a decision will be made.

“There may be a small reduction in the whole bird volumes,” said Boyd. “We’ll know that by the end of March.”

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“This is the most significant and serious issue that we as turkey farmers will be facing in the coming years,” said chairman Bill Uruski.

Calvin McBain of the Turkey Farmers of Canada said when the deal comes into effect, it will severely curtail the industry’s future prospects.

“We will basically be exporting the growth potential for our market,” he said.

If the two per cent increase in duty-free direct access comes into Canada in the form of breast meat, Uruski said the market loss will be equivalent to the entire turkey production of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined. By the end of the TPP’s 18-year-long phase-in period, there will have been a 70 per cent increase in foreign access to Canada’s supply-managed turkey sector, equalling about five per cent of current production.

“I relate it to medieval torture,” Uruski told producers. “Only one turn of the screw a year so your body gets used to it. You don’t die, but it’s certainly painful all the time.”

However, the TPP is far from being the first turn of the screw. Uruski pointed to a lengthy history of trade deals that have eroded both supply management and the Canadian job market, beginning with the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in 1987.

“We pay a high price for these treaties in terms of lost sovereignty, but what has been the payoff? Do these agreements actually increase trade and foreign direct investment?” he asked.

For Uruski, the answer is a resounding no.

Pointing to a 1998 study by the investment review division of Industry Canada, he said that more than 90 per cent of foreign investment at that time actually went to the acquisition of Canadian companies, essentially foreign takeovers. He also noted Canada had a trade deficit of $17 billion in 2015.

“The TPP, like previous agreements, is not primarily about trade, but about investment protection for the largest trans­national corporations and many are in the business of food,” Uruski said. “This agreement will provide corporations based in these countries with new and powerful rights, including the right to sue the Canadian government for any measure that affects their future profits — it’s been done.”

Phil Boyd, executive director of the Turkey Farmers of Canada, said the organization is working to locate areas within the agreement that can be capitalized on by turkey producers, but silver linings are hard to find.

“There has been no reduction in overquota tariffs for turkey, which represent 19 different tariff lines,” said Boyd. “And that our overquota tariffs have been left intact is really very fundamentally important in terms of supporting important measures… that really provides a high level of assurance.”

The deal also presents an opportunity to export dark meat, but capitalizing on it will be challenging.

“We see good potential in exporting dark, meaning in particular to Mexico for example, which we haven’t been able to do under the terms of NAFTA,” he said. “Whether that unfolds or not… we’ll see. It’s difficult to compete with the America market, it is about 15 times our size in terms of scale and has been exporting to Mexico for years.”

With the new Liberal government embarking on TPP consultations, now is the time for producers and industry to make their concerns known, said Uruski, noting the average annual loss per farm will be $26,000 once the deal is implemented.

“We need to show them what the impacts of this deal are,” he said. “We as turkey farmers do have a story to tell. We spend locally at machine and auto dealerships, equipment suppliers, feed companies, all prosper from our spending. Under the TPP, our Canadian food security program will be slowly unravelled.”

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While they don’t like giving up even a small part of their market, officials said last week they understand there are benefits for the Canadian economy and welcome the government’s pledge of up to $4.3 billion in compensation.

Turkey Farmers of Canada chairman Mark Davies said his group “will conduct a detailed evaluation of the challenges this agreement will bring to our farmers and the sector generally, as turkey production is displaced from Canadian farms.”

Dave Janzen, chairman of Chicken Farmers of Canada, said the quota loss was significant, but the industry welcomed “the government’s firm commitment to immediately ending fraudulent import practices that have plagued the industry for over five years.”

“This is a heavy hit,” he said. “Given this additional access, we are counting on the government to cease the practice of regularly issuing supplementary import allocations.”

Peter Clarke, chairman of Egg Farmers of Canada said more time is needed to fully understand the impact of the deal on egg producers.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture supports Canada being part of the negotiations but wants to study the agreement further too. While most export commodities will benefit, the deal falls short of the access Canadian sugar beet growers were seeking to the U.S., the CFA said in a release.

The CFA wants Canada’s new Parliament to carefully review the deal and the commitments to assist those sectors negatively affected.

“What is needed now is for government and industry stakeholders to come together to analyze what is needed for Canadian farmers to take full advantage of these (European Trade Agreement and TPP) trade deals and develop an export strategy,” CFA president Ron Bonnett said.

The TPP, if implemented, will be good for western Canadian grain, oilseed, pulse and livestock producers who could potentially see more of their products exported, said Sylvain Charlebois, associate professor of marketing and consumer studies at the University of Guelph. But it doesn’t necessarily mean higher prices due to increased world demand.

“I would argue this trade deal can actually enhance Canada’s influence globally as a commodity producer,” Charlebois said. “But it doesn’t mean world demand will increase because of this deal. They are two separate concepts.

“I would say this is certainly a deal that should be embraced by farmers out west.”

Prices are important, but so is market access, especially to growing markets in Asia, he said. Most Canadian farmers need export markets because they produce much more than the country can consume. The main exception are supply management farmers who produce dairy, poultry and eggs in sync with domestic demands.

U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would reject the deal based on what she has seen so far. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said Canada won’t sign if he’s elected prime minister.

Charlebois says Clinton has an out, but Mulcair was categorical. If Canada withdraws, not only would it be bad for the Canadian economy, it would be an embarrassment, according to Charlebois.

“(Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s approach after the (election) writ was dropped was unwise,” he said.

“But if Mr. Harper had actively engaged with Mr. Mulcair and Mr. Trudeau I don’t think we would’ve been in the same situation.”

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