Help for Canadian Poultry Sector to Recover from Impact of Avian Influenza
CANADA - The Canadian and British Columbian governments are to fund two initiatives worth up to C$1.58 million to help BC poultry producers re-establish their operations and mitigate the impact of future risks following an outbreak of notifiable avian influenza in the Fraser Valley this past winter.
13 May 2015
3 minute read
By: The AgriRecovery and AgriRisk initiatives are part of the suite of federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) business risk management tools under Growing Forward 2.
The AgriRecovery framework allows federal and provincial governments to respond to unforeseen disasters that result in extraordinary costs for producers and where the assistance required is beyond what is available under existing programmes.
AgriRisk supports the research and development as well as the implementation and administration of new risk management tools for use in the agriculture sector.
In 2013, the British Columbian poultry and egg farm cash receipts reached C$547 million corresponding to 14.5 percent of Canada's total poultry and egg farm cash receipts.
"Governments agreed that Growing Forward 2 would be there for farmers in times of unforeseen economic harm. These initiatives will help BC poultry producers deal with added costs of resuming business operations, while helping the poultry sector develop insurance options against future outbreaks," said Member of Parliament for Langley, Mark Warawa representing the Canadian Agriculture Minister.
"The value of government and industry partnership has been evident in our successful response to the avian flu outbreak, and this funding is one more step in that process. By helping BC's impacted poultry farmers recover the cleaning and disinfection expenses they incurred in helping to limit the viruses spread, we're encouraging BC's farmers to continue their hard work in providing local, high-quality foods," said British Columbian Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick.
"The funding for the AgriRecovery claim and the AgriRisk initiative goes hand in hand and it's much appreciated by industry,” said the Chair of the BC Poultry Industry Captive Insurance Company and Director of the 2014 Industry Emergency Operations Centre, Garnet Etsell.
“The BC poultry industry is thankful for the assistance, and both the provincial and federal governments' timely help in reducing the economic hardship experienced by those affected by the 2014 avian influenza outbreak through the AgriRecovery programme.
“The AgriRisk initiative will help the industry continue its leading edge work on developing a risk mitigation strategy that will further reduce the effects of future threats."
