The Rural Voice, 1998-01, Page 25Workers (above) process chickens at the new Farm Fresh Poultry Co-op at Harriston (seen from the outside, below).
Taking production
the next step
35 chicken producers have invested in a new
poultry co-operative in Harriston, part of the
new breed of co-ops springing up
in North America
By Keith Roulston
Different farmers have reacted
in different ways to the
continued concern over the
future of supply management. For a
group of 35 Ontario chicken
producers, the solution has been to
take control of their future by
processing and marketing their own
chickens.
The result was the opening, in
November, of the Farm Fresh Poultry
Co-operative at Harriston, the first
step, the group hopes, in processing
all the chickens produced on their
own farms.
Urs Kressibucher, one of five
directors on the co-op's board, says
the new co-op grew out of a meeting
of chicken producers in District 8
(located in the Lake Simcoe area) of
the Ontario Chicken Producers
Marketing Board about a year and a
half ago. The producers set up a
study committee to look at options
for taking their products all the way
to market.
They called in consultant George
Akalay, a former government
bureaucrat who had been involved in
the incorporation, regulation and
development of co-operatives during
his days on the govemment payroll.
He had since gone out on his own,
setting up Northfield Ventures
Limited in Snowball (a hamlet near
Aurora), a consulting company
specializing in finding solutions to
such farm and rural problems. He had
earlier helped the Canadian Emu Co-
operative organize and acquire its
own processing plant.
Akalay estimates he put in several
hundred hours during the early stages
of the project, then spent 60-70 hours
a week between May and October as,
the project neared completion.
The first challenge, he says, was
to bring the membership together and
discover a shared vision of what they
wanted to do. They looked at several
options, from leasing a plant to
entering a joint venture with existing
companies. Along the way the circle
of producer -members also widened
beyond the District 8 originators,
taking in producers from Lake Huron
in the west to Simcoe and Grimsby in
the south and Sterling in eastern
Ontario.
Eventually, he says, it became
evident that the members really
wanted to own their own plant 100
per cent, even if it was a smaller
facility. They began to look around
for a plant, requiring such utilities as
municipal water and sewer services.
They found Ungerman Thompson
Poultry Products Inc. in IIarriston
was for sale. Next, Akalay says,
came negotiations for a mutually
beneficial deal and putting together a
credible business plan.
With this in place it came time to
talk to the bank. Akalay says the
Royal Bank was very supportive of
the idea. Still, the process was very
paper intensive. (Jim Judge, the co-
op's president joked that Akalay had
broken his fax machine with all the
documents he sent.)
This was a frustrating time for the
producers who are used to doing
business on a handshake, backed by
trust, Akalay says. Now there was
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