ONTARIO— The governments of Canada and Ontario are helping farmers and other businesses in the province’s broiler chicken egg and hatcheries sector enhance traceability of its products.
With cost-share funding of up to approximately $141 thousand through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (the Partnership), the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission (OBHECC) will upgrade its systems that track egg and chick production. This upgrade will reduce costs by further automating data inputting processes and allow other systems, such as on-farm sensors, to seamlessly connect and upload new data.
In Ontario, cost-share programming to agriculture and value chain organizations is provided through the Place to Grow: Agri-food Innovation Initiative. The next application intake will be from January 6 to January 27. Program details including the program guide are available online.
“This investment ensures chicken farmers are equipped with up-to-date and efficient traceability tools, which are essential to maintaining strong businesses and to strengthening public trust in food safety and quality,” said the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
The Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission is a membership group comprising Ontario Broiler Chicken Hatching Egg Producers Association members and Ontario Hatcheries Association members. Ontario’s broiler hatching egg farming sector generated $15.4 million in farm cash receipts or about 26 per cent of Canada’s total in 2018 (Statistics Canada). According to Ontario government estimates, approximately 40 direct jobs and $3 million in direct GDP can be attributed to Ontario’s broiler hatching egg farming sector in 2018.
“We’re committed to working with our farmers and our entire agri-food sector to help them find ways to save time and money through innovation, while continuing to produce safe, high-quality foods consumers enjoy,” said the Honourable Ernie Hardeman, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “Investing in projects like this one, through the Partnership, is helping to make our agri-food stronger and even more competitive.”
The governments have supported around 2.5 thousand projects through the Partnership, including an initiative by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario, working alongside the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chicken Commission and the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors. The project will build and strengthen the capacity for the province’s chicken industry to effectively and humanely manage chickens during emergency situations such as disease outbreak or barn damage from fire or extreme weather.
“OBHECC is committed to partnership that drives innovated processes to meet new challenges and opportunities for our membership and industry,” said Bill Van Heeswyk, Executive Director of the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission. “This progressive solution will reduce overhead and increase the overall efficiency of the hatchery supply chain while building value and serving the chicken industry’s needs of sustainable, safe and high-quality products. We thank Minister Hardeman and Minister Bibeau for this support and partnership as we work to continuously improve our systems and build a platform to support the needs of a growing hatching egg and hatchery industry.”
Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed cost-share support to approximately 2.5 thousand projects through the Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow. The Partnership is a five year, $3 billion commitment by Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments that supports Canada’s agri-food and agri-products sectors.
