Commercial egg production set to begin in Cariboo

QUESNEL – Commercial egg production is coming to the Cariboo following the selection of a local producer for quota under the BC Egg Marketing Board’s new producer program.

Tim Traber of Quesnel was one of two small-lot producers selected in the BC Egg’s new producer lottery in Abbotsford, September 9. Together with Mitch and Breanne Baker of Cawston, Traber will scale up his operations with 3,000 units of quota to provide local eggs to Interior consumers.

“There’s definitely a market in this region, for sure, with no egg farms around us,” Traber says.

He aims to sell through local grocers and restaurants in the Quesnel area, then broadening his market as production expands.

“The program is laid out so you don’t just start with 3,000, you start with 1,000 and then you work your way up to 3,000,” he said. “That’s very important.”

The staged growth allows the farmer to gradually grow into the market, and for the market to develop around local supply.

Approximately 31 of the province’s 154 registered egg producers are located outside the Fraser Valley. In addition, 98 small-lot permit holders and 3,653 unregistered flocks serve a market estimated at $265.7 million last year on a volume of 84.6 million dozen eggs.

In the Cariboo, Traber was one of five small-lot permit holders with up to 399 laying hens as well as 365 unregistered flocks with less than 100 birds. All told, the region has just 0.6% of BC’s laying hens.

While small growers contribute to food security, Amanda Brittain with BC Egg notes they’re unable to supply grocers and restaurants, limiting their impact.

“Small-lot permit holders are not permitted to sell their eggs to grocery stores,” she explains. “It is unlikely that small-lot permit holders would be able to provide all the eggs needed in a region such as the Cariboo. Commercial production is needed for regional food-security.”

Traber’s existing connections with the community – his family ran the region’s first large-scale dairy farm – as well as his profile as a professional hockey player for the Vancouver Giants and most recently HC Lugano in Switzerland will be assets in developing a market for his eggs.

Traber’s parents Roland and Romy emigrated from Switzerland to Canada in 1989 and began dairy farming. Traber, now 31, left the farm to play professional hockey for 15 years but returned with the idea of developing his own farm.

Diversification from dairy into egg production was a long term plan, and Traber obtained a small-lot permit and began learning the ropes.

“I paid my dues, so to speak,” he says.

This year, he applied for quota as part of the new producer program. Restricted to small-lot permit holders outside the Lower Mainland, each applicant submitted an 80-page business plan and is required to have a grading station in place that allows them to sell direct to retail and restaurants. The total investment required is significant.

“If I didn’t have our family background in agriculture, it would be very difficult to start because it’s so capital intensive,” he says. “You have to build a grading facility, and you have to build a barn and you have to have all the funding in place. It’s not just, ‘Hey, I’m here and I’m just going to start producing eggs.’”

Traber will be joined in the new venture by his partner Katharina, but he also has the support of his parents and sisters Vivian and Sophia as well as several mentors.

These include Richard and Jacqueline Boer of Brightside Poultry in Chilliwack, long-time friends of his family; Ross Springford of Springford Farms in Nanoose Bay and Kieran (Christison) McKeown of Daybreak Farms in Terrace.

The mentorship of others and his experience as an athlete has kept Traber focused on achieving his personal best as a producer.

“I’m not competing against anybody; I’m competing against myself. I have to be a better farmer every year; I have to be a better businessman,” he says. “Being competitive with other people is great, but lots of people are competitive for the sake of being competitive. But you have to look in the mirror.”

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