The supply management that oversees the country's main agricultural products is a threat to young farmers. The high value of quotas pushes several candidates and causes headaches in older producers.
A recent report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food estimated that 40% of farmers wishing to dispose of their farms within 5 years have not respite . The problem
Young Farmers also retain the attention at the 25th Salon de l'agriculture de St-Hyacinthe, which opens Tuesday in Montérégie. Chairman and CEO of Cascades, Alain Lemaire, will deliver a lecture on the intergenerational transfer of businesses and retaining employees in the company.
"Attracting young people to the farm is not obvious because the salaries are not competitive," Bachand told Charles Silver, president of the Salon of Agriculture, adding that buying a farm is too expensive for most young people.
The number of farms moreover melted by 12% in recent years in Quebec. It went from 32,000 establishments in 2006 to 28,000 currently.
"Young people can not run if they have no parents in agriculture. It takes financial assistance especially for productions that are under supply management. It's the same thing for a Rona or a Jean-Coutu. A young person can not run it alone, "analyzed Réal Laflamme, dairy farmer and vice president of the Salon of Agriculture.
The five agricultural products under supply management are milk, poultry, Crops and table eggs and hatching eggs. To access the milk production, the aspirants must pay for example $ 25 000 to purchase the quota of one cow.
The amount jumped to $ 2.5 million for a herd of 100 cows. Some dairy farms also worth up to $ 4 million including machinery and buildings.
"When our children are concerned, there are various possible arrangements but they do not sell our farms at market value," said Réal Laflamme, without specifying that the firm is often dismantled and purchased by different producers.
In this context, the president of the Union Paysanne Benoit Girouard, believes that Canada and Quebec must renew their agricultural model to enable more young people enter the profession.
"Farms are disappearing faster in Canada are holdings under supply management. Young people lack access to these productions, "lamented Benoit Girouard.
The rabbit farmer believes that Canada should adopt a hybrid system. The agricultural market should be free in his eyes-without-quota production within the country while being closed foreign productions that would be surcharged at the borders. Such a model would allow aspiring producers access to production at lower cost, as the president of the Farmers Union.
"It should, however, provide an exit mechanism and a transition charge is dropped if the supply management. Producers have significant borrowings to build this system, "said Girouard, noting that all the quotas in force in Quebec have a value of $ 11 billion.
Still, some observers believe that quotas are essential and that their elimination would entail the disappearance of several producers.
"If we open the borders, removed the quota, the consumer will pay less but the producers will pay the price because they are no longer profitable," said Charles Bachand, comparing the probable difficulties in the agricultural sector those that crossed the textile and furniture with globalization.
Starting in 2015, Canada will be the only country in the world to manage agricultural production under the system of supply management.
Carl Renaud
Silver
http://argent.canoe.ca/lca/affaires/canada/archives/2011/01/20110110-165225.html
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