June 15, 2004

 

 

Avian Flu Costs B.C. Poultry Industry 1,700 Jobs, $8 million A Week
 

The avian flu crisis has cost the B.C. poultry industry more than 1,700 jobs and far more than what has been so far offered in government compensation funds, an industry spokesman said Monday.

 

The industry has been losing $8 million a week and has already surpassed the $60 million committed by the federal government, according to statistics released by a group calling itself Farms Now.

 

The group said it expects to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the two years it will take to fully recover from avian flu, which had led to the slaughter of 17 million chickens, turkey, geese and ducks in the Fraser Valley since February.

 

Jobs across the industry have been lost, said Rick Thiessen, president of the B.C. Chicken Growers' Association.

 

"They are from a wide variety of jobs in our industry," he said, listing off farm employees, plant workers, hatchery staff, truck drivers and delivery personnel.

 

The federal government said last week it would pay British Columbia farmers up to $60 million in compensation.

 

But Thiessen said only a tiny fraction of affected farmers in the Fraser Valley represented by his group will see that money.

 

Just nine out of about 208 chicken growers would qualify for funding, he said.

 

"That money represents the value of flocks that were in the barns and had to be depopulated.

 

It "does nothing about the downtime our industry is going to face and the months and in some cases the year to two that people will be sitting idle and having to wait to restock."

 

The compensation is only directed at producers and does nothing for industry infrastructure, he said.

 

Thiessen said his group has not been given any indication that compensation dollars will be increased.

 

He expected his group would soon be in a position to release an estimate about the amount of money lost by the industry.

 

"We had an initial estimate at the beginning that this could cost around $500 million in the neighbourhood," he said.

 

"The federal government has encouraged us from the onset to get some specific numbers together and tally them and present that to them."

 

Industry representives are holding an event Wednesday to ask federal political leaders to pledge support for their recovery plan.