Farms, fishers & beekeepers
Selling meat, poultry and eggs from your farm in BC
Where your meat can be sold depends on the slaughter licence: abattoir and Farmgate Plus meat can go anywhere in BC, Farmgate meat only directly to consumers on the farm or at nearby markets, and none of it outside BC. Chicken and turkey add a marketing-board permit; ungraded eggs go only to the person who eats them.
Changes are coming
- Foam trays for raw meat, poultry and fish are restricted — takes effect 1 July 2030. What changes
- Selling provincially slaughtered red meat to other provinces — proposed, no date set; it may not happen. What changes
10 changes with a date and 8 proposals for farms in all. See what’s coming
Only want the steps that apply to you?
What you need, in order
11 steps. Each links to its own page, with the forms and the rule behind it.
- 1
Premises ID registration
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Anyone responsible for even one farm animal must register the place it is kept with BC’s Premises ID program: cattle, bison, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, alpacas and llamas, rabbits, farmed deer, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and other poultry, and honey bees. There is no minimum flock, herd or hive count. It is how the Province finds the farms at risk in a disease outbreak or a flood, and you need it before you can apply for a Farmgate licence or a chicken small-lot permit.
- Cost:
- Free.
- Time:
- Register within 30 days of becoming responsible for the animals, and report changes within 30 days.
- 2
Slaughter licence: Abattoir, Farmgate Plus or Farmgate
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
All meat and poultry sold in BC must be slaughtered under a licence. An abattoir inspects every animal and sells anywhere in BC; Farmgate Plus (up to 25 animal units a year — the licence former Class D and E holders now have) sells anywhere in BC, labelled “Not Government Inspected”; Farmgate (up to 5 units, your own animals) sells only directly to consumers — from the farm, or at markets in your regional district or within 50 km. None of it may leave BC.
- 3
Chicken small-lot permit or turkey Direct Vendor licence
BC Chicken / BC Turkey Marketing Board
For chicken or turkey
Selling chicken without quota needs a small-lot permit (up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site); the 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and shops and restaurants may buy chicken only from a permit or quota holder. Turkey needs a Direct Vendor licence (up to 300 poults), sold only at the farm gate, farmers’ markets, independent butchers and independent restaurants — not at events, by delivery or to chains. Ducks, geese and spent laying hens aren’t covered by either board.
- Cost:
- Chicken permit $20 a year; turkey licence $100 administration fee.
- 4
Egg flock permit
BC Egg Marketing Board
For laying hens
Up to 99 hens needs no permit; 100–399 hens needs a small-lot permit — you must be 19 or older, with free-range, free-run, organic or heritage production — and those eggs, graded or not, go only to the people who eat them; 400 or more needs quota. Ungraded eggs are sold from your farm or home, or at farmers’ markets. These rules cover chicken eggs only.
- Cost:
- Small-lot permit $250 a year.
- 5
Approval to operate
Island Health
A food premises permit for selling meat
Food premises that don’t serve food for immediate eating — food processors, bakeries without a counter, food stores, commissaries — receive an approval to operate instead of a permit. Health approval must be in place before you open.
- 6
Letter of Confirmation for higher-risk food at markets
Island Health
For selling frozen meat at markets
Before selling a higher-risk food at a farmers’ market — for example anything from an approved kitchen that needs refrigeration, frozen meat or fish, dairy, or a shelf-stable higher-risk food such as a nut butter, flavoured oil or ferment — the health authority reviews the product and issues a letter. It covers in-person market sales only.
- Time:
- Apply at least 30 days before the market; plan on about 14 days to process.
- 7
Federal food labels
CFIA and Health Canada rules
Prepackaged food needs a common name, net quantity, ingredients and allergens, your name and a physical address (a website doesn’t count), a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less, a Nutrition Facts table, a front-of-pack “High in” symbol if it is high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium, and English and French — English-only is allowed for food sold only in the municipality where it’s made and its neighbours. Selling only at markets yourself removes the Nutrition Facts table and the front-of-pack symbol, unless the label makes a nutrition claim. There is no exemption for online sales, and a product may not be advertised online without a proper label.
- 8
Livestock ID tags and movement reporting
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
For cattle, bison, sheep or pigs
Federal traceability rules cover cattle, bison, sheep and pigs, however few you keep. Cattle, bison and sheep need an approved ear tag before they leave your farm, and a replaced tag is reported within 30 days. Pigs need an approved tag or slap tattoo before they leave, and both the farm they leave and the farm they arrive at report the move within 7 days. Sheep farms also keep five years of records of sheep 18 months or older that leave for anywhere but slaughter. The records let an animal disease be traced to every farm an animal passed through. Goats and farmed deer aren’t covered yet; adding them is proposed.
- 9
A legal-for-trade scale, if you price by weight
Measurement Canada
If you sell by weight
Only matters if you charge by weight — by the pound or kilo at the counter or market table. Then the scale must be a “legal for trade” model, the kind sold for retail use with a Measurement Canada approval number, rather than a kitchen scale, and a private service company checks it every five years. It sits level, faces the customer and is zeroed, and packaging isn’t charged. Food sold by the piece, or in packs that all weigh the same, doesn’t need one; neither does portioning a burger patty.
- 10
Farm store rules on Agricultural Land Reserve land
Agricultural Land Commission
For a farm store on ALR land
A farm stand or store in the ALR needs no ALC approval, and the ALC sets no size limit, if everything it sells is grown on your farm — though your local government can cap its building area or site coverage. Selling bought-in goods too caps the whole retail area at 300 m², at least half of it for your own farm’s products. Processing on the farm is allowed when at least half of what you process is your own. A café or restaurant is not a farm use and needs an ALC application — except the lounge of a licensed farm winery, cidery, brewery, distillery or meadery (up to 125 m² indoors and 125 m² outdoors).
- Cost:
- A non-farm-use application to the ALC is $1,500 ($750 to your local government, $750 to the ALC).
- 11
Registering your business name
BC Registries
Trading under your own name needs no registration. Any other name means reserving it and registering within 3 months of first using it; a partnership registers within 3 months of forming. Incorporating is the alternative, and only a corporation, co-op or society gets exclusive use of its name.
- Cost:
- Name request $30 (reserved 56 days); sole proprietorship or partnership registration $40; incorporation $350, then a $43.39 annual report.
What you can sell
More for farms
When you’re ready to sell
Selling on Local Pass
Selling a whole animal means finding a dozen buyers. On the Island Food Market, customers order by the cut or the box, from your farm by name.
Which of your products can be sold online depends on how they were slaughtered or graded — the answers above say which.
Sell by weight
Price by the pound or kilo: the customer’s card is held at checkout, and they’re charged the actual weight when you pack the order.
Your units
Each product carries its own unit and price — by the dozen, the loaf, the bunch or the pound.
Your own storefront
A storefront on the Island Food Market, with every product on its own page, built to be found on Google.
Local Pass is a platform that connects Island businesses and customers through its app and website — it is not a regulator. Every seller is responsible for the permits, licences and labels their food needs, and this guide is here to help you work out which ones.