Montreal processor now Ontario’s only supplier of kosher chicken

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario chicken farmers have lost the ability to supply the kosher market after the province’s only kosher processor, Chai Kosher Poultry in Toronto, closed earlier this month.

Ontario, Canada’s largest kosher market, is now being supplied by Montreal-based Marvid Poultry, which obtains its chickens from Quebec farmers, says president Moishe Friedman. Marvid is the only kosher poultry processor left in Canada.

There is no reason why a Montreal processor can’t supply the Ontario market and use Quebec birds to do so, says Michael Edmonds, director of communications and government relations for Chicken Farmers of Ontario. Chicken board regulations don’t prohibit the movement of processed chickens across provincial borders, he explains.

“Once chickens are processed they go to the market and the market determines where the end customers are,” he says. “So if Marvid sees an opportunity to sell to the Ontario market, it does so.”

Edmonds says his understanding of the kosher chicken situation is Chai sold its rights to purchase live chickens from Ontario producers to Sargent Farms in Milton. Sargent hand processes chickens in accordance with Islamic law for the halal market.

Officials from Sargent Farms couldn’t be reached for comment.

Edmonds said he didn't have numbers on hand for the size of Ontario's kosher market or Chai's production but that he would try to find them. However, he had not supplied them by the time of this posting.

Edmonds says Chicken Farmers of Ontario and the provincial industry are trying to find “a made-in-Ontario solution” to provide Ontario chicken for the kosher demand in the province. “That’s an important focus.”

The changes in the kosher market supply are all very new, he says. “This is just happening now.” He couldn’t say how long it will take to find a solution.

Friedman described the Toronto market as twice as big as the Montreal market but he didn’t have specific numbers for those two markets. The two markets make up most of the demand for kosher chicken in Canada. The total Canadian kosher chicken market amounts to 70,000 to 75,000 chickens a week, he says. That’s the equivalent of roughly two per cent of the 195 million broiler chickens Ontario produced in 2012.

Friedman says generally speaking Ontario customers won’t see a change in prices nor is there a shortage of supply with Marvid providing the products. In addition to taking over Chai’s former kosher market, Marvid supplies the Hasidic community in Ontario, which Chai didn’t supply. It also supplies the Hasidic community in Montreal and it exports products.

“There’s enough chicken,” he notes. But possibly some specialty items may take a day longer to get. Marvid wasn’t given any notice that Chai was closing but it still adapted to “this major change for us,” he explains. “We still attacked it and we are on the ball.” BF

Update: 4:50 p.m. Friday May 31, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Sargent Farms in Milton is using all of the rights to purchase live chickens in Ontario it bought from Chai Kosher Poultry for its halal chicken processing business, says CEO Kevin Thompson.

He notes Sargent bought 900,000 kilograms per each eight-week quota period from Chai. As for Sargent’s total production, Thompson says he’s not sure he wants to make that public.

“We’re not going to be doing kosher,” he says. “We can’t do kosher here. We don’t have the equipment that you need to do kosher.”

Sargent sells its product to the retail, wholesale and foodservice segments of the market and its main business is in the Greater Toronto Area. “There is a very large and growing Muslim population here,” he says.

Thompson is the former executive director of the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors, a voluntary industry trade association that represents its members on matters of common interest. BF