A Third-Generation Business Dedicated To Local Giving Make Their Mark In BC And Carry On In The Time Of COVID-19
DUNCAN – Farmer Ben’s Eggs has served Vancouver Island since 1980. Started by Ian Woike and his father as an egg layer farm and branching into grading and wholesale in 1994, Ian and wife Jennifer Woike provide nutritious, fresh eggs to Island communities.
Jennifer and Ian Woike run Farmer Ben’s Eggs, founded by Ian and his father in the Cowichan Valley, with four decades of feeding Vancouver Islanders under their belt
Ian, his son and locally-hired employees tend to day-to-day operations, while Jennifer uses her marketing expertise to promote their one-hundred percent guaranteed Vancouver Island-produced eggs, the only registered producer and grader who can make that claim. Each egg comes from hormone, antibiotic and steroid-free hens from farms located within 2.5 km of each other and their grading station, creating a minimal carbon footprint.
This care and respect for environment and nutrition extends to the customer.
Says Jennifer, “If you support your community, they’ll support you. In addition to our regular charity contributions, we’ve donated to the Starfish Program, which provides hampers to families in need. As of May, they’d given out over four-hundred hampers, with two-dozen Farmer Ben’s Eggs in each. We contributed three-thousand dozen eggs to Nourish Cowichan during this pandemic, providing meals for hungry children.”
Farmer Ben’s Eggs are guaranteed to come from Vancouver Island, sourced from hormone, antibiotic and steroid-free hens on the Woike’s own farms
Farmer Ben’s has felt the impact of the pandemic, losing 40 per cent of their restaurant and hospitality industry business. Fortunately, an upswing in grocery and retail sales softened this blow, and coincidentally, a previous disaster put them ahead of the COVID-19 curve.
“The H5N1 avian influenza devastated our industry in 2008,” describes Jennifer. “Because of that outbreak, we had very strict biosecurity measures already. We have no virus or disease transfer into our barns. Our team use ante-rooms to protect from contamination, and wear protective suits in our facilities, among other precautions. This protects workers and the community buying our eggs.”
Jennifer and Ian also advocate for their industry as a whole, pushing for a West Coast fiber food packaging supplier willing to work with companies of all sizes. This is something suppliers out East have been slow to do as demand for branded fiber egg cartons and flats increase.
“We have the natural resources in BC. Someone with a business model needs to take that and run with it,” Jennifer notes. “We’re having those conversations.”
For the future, Farmer Ben’s Eggs look to have the first certified organic free-range flock (out of commercial producers) on Vancouver Island by 2022. As the economy opens, Farmer Ben’s plans to be there, ready to supply high-quality, fresh eggs from happy, healthy animals to restaurants and Islanders alike.