Organic chicken group gains momentum in Ontario

Yorkshire Valley Farms (YVF), an Ontario-based organic poultry organization, is making progress in meeting the conditions placed on it earlier in 2016 when it was conditionally granted New Entrant Chicken Processor status into the Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO).

Mg7, Bigstock
Mg7, Bigstock

Yorkshire Valley Farms (YVF), an Ontario-based organic poultry organization, is making progress in meeting the conditions placed on it earlier in 2016 when it was conditionally granted New Entrant Chicken Processor status into the Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO). The company has gone through a comprehensive and extensive due diligence review process conducted for CFO by a third-party business and financial consultancy.

The grant is subject to the final fulfillment of all terms and conditions set out in a joint CFO-YVF letter of intent signed earlier in the year, which is expected to be completed this fall. CFO will continue to conduct disciplined due diligence ensuring confirmation of all YVF commitments.

“Our success depends upon our ability to understand consumers, markets, our food customers and fellow industry-value chain stakeholders, and to ensure that we are responsive to their evolving needs. We recognize the ongoing need to support our Ontario industry to meet the changing consumer demands for different types of chicken,” said Henry Zantingh, Chair of CFO. “Consumer tastes are evolving, becoming more diverse and distinct. Organic has been identified as a distinct market segment as well as one of the fastest growing market segments, and we see it as a key strategic building block in helping grow the Ontario industry.”
 
“Ontario has a rich tradition of growing and processing premium quality chicken and further investment by the new entrant processor Yorkshire Valley Farms will enhance the ability of our industry to meet consumer demand by providing locally grown, locally processed, organic chicken,” said Rob Dougans, president and CEO of CFO. “CFO’s goal is to drive strategic, sustainable economic growth by being responsive to, and consistently meeting, consumer demand and increasing chicken’s market share of consumer meat protein consumption.”

“This announcement also demonstrates the importance of building and implementing supply management policies and programs that can stimulate new industry development and investment, and which can continue to support and nurture the entrepreneurial energies and economic growth ambitions of the Ontario chicken industry.”

About the New Entrant Chicken Processors program

CFO’s New Entrant Chicken Processors program was established to ensure that enterprises wishing to process chicken in Ontario and address changing market opportunities would be able to do so following a successful application process. 
 
The program helps provide new strategic market segment processing capacity to benefit the sustainable economic growth of fresh, high quality, locally-farmed and processed chicken in Ontario. Each year CFO advances a strategic market to be served by an approved new entrant processor. CFO designated organic as the strategic market segment that should be served by new processor entrants with applications in 2015- 2016.

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