COVID influences food demand

COVID continues to complicate efforts to manage supply of regulated commodities in Canada.

“It’s still not easy because there’s a lot of different metrics at play,” Abbotsford producer Ray Nickel told the BC Chicken Growers Association general meeting August 4, delivering the report from the Chicken Farmers of Canada. “We haven’t seen a full opening yet, so we’re not fully back to where we’re back to going to restaurants and fast food places and all of that and we’re willing to give up the at-home. Now you’re hearing the renewed COVID fears on the delta variant.”

The result is that at-home and foodservice sales are both up, challenging chicken producers to keep up with demand and anticipate where it might be heading. This is in sharp contrast to last year, when initial restrictions designed to fight COVID-19 resulted in an immediate 20% drop in foodservice spending.

Government support programs designed to carry people through the pandemic, which were recently renewed into the fall, are another wildcard.

“Don’t forget all the cash that everyone’s been receiving from the federal government,” says Nickel. “We have a lot of free-flowing money out there right now that could certainly be going to the food sector.”

The complex outlook is good news, however.

“We do definitely see that there’s going to be increased demand for chicken supply,” says Nickel.

Prospects are slightly different for the dairy sector.

The BC Milk Marketing Board, in conjunction with the other Western Milk Pool (WMP) provinces, recently approved a decision to remove all incentive days issued for August and September. The incentive days scheduled for October and November are also under review.

The industry invokes incentive days to encourage production, and the industry had anticipated greater demand this fall as some semblance of normal life resumed. It’s now scaled back those hopes.

“WMP market analysis has determined that the impact of seasonality of fluid milk sales, weather (drought), imports due to trade agreements and the slow recovery of the hospitality and service industries are affecting current demand,” the BC board explains, noting that producers in Eastern Canada are also experiencing lower demand.

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7 hours ago

Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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4 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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5 days ago

The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.