Canada’s supply managed chicken industry hit back last week at allegations by a conservative Quebec think-tank that supply management costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars each year in excess food costs.
Chicken Farmers of Canada general manager Mike Dungate was particularly incensed at a suggestion in the Montreal Economic Institute report that supply managed prices contribute to obesity in Canada because it is cheaper to buy high sugar soft drinks than milk.
“Obesity is an issue high on the public concern and we could not leave it without rebutting that somehow supply management contributes,” Dungate said. “That is a ludicrous suggestion. We could not let this pass.”
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He said obesity rates are higher in the United States, where there is no supply management, than in Canada. And Statistics Canada reports that high income Canadians are more likely to be obese than low income Canadians.
Recently, the free-market promoting institute issued a report that alleged supply management costs a Quebec family of four on average $300 per year in higher food costs.
Dungate said supply managed farmers do not receive taxpayer subsidies. Meanwhile, governments spend billions of dollars on support for other farm sectors, costing the average family indirectly $500 per year in taxes. He said consumers can choose whether to buy supply managed products, while their tax dollars support sectors whose products they do not consume.
He also said that in the past 25 years, the consumer price index has increased 120 percent while the live price for chicken is up just 5.5 percent.
However, according to the July price index published in August, the all-items inflation rate was 2.2 percent during the past year, while the price of fresh or frozen chicken purchased in stores increased 9.6 percent.
“We don’t set retail prices,” said Dungate.
