An agreement in principle on national chicken quota allocations has been reached, but there are no signed deals on how the distribution might work.
All member provinces of Chicken Farmers of Canada will get a slight increase, but Alberta and Ontario may receive a bit more based on their population growth.
“We have been at this seriously for five years,” said Mike Dungate, executive director of Chicken Farmers of Canada.
“We are closer than we have ever been.”
When assessing how much quota each province should receive, they consider factors like the overall market demand as well as natural population growth.
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Alberta and Ontario have long argued their quota has been under-allocated for many years while their populations have surged. In protest Alberta dropped out of the national scheme at the beginning of 2014.
On a national basis, however, all meat consumption in Canada is down. In 2000, the average total meat consumption was 98 kilogram, which now hovers around 87 kg per capita, said Dungate.
The greatest decline has been for beef and pork, while chicken consumption has remained stable.
Chicken consumption peaked in 2007 when every Canadian ate 31.6 kg per year. It declined by about a kilogram since then but consumption is rebuilding, partly in response to record retail prices for beef and pork.
“This past year has been very good because prices of beef and pork have gone up significantly,” he said.
Chicken has not gone up, so they believe they can increase the supply while keeping costs in line.
As of last July 31, the national association reported 710.8 million kg of fresh chicken was available for the Canadian market, up nearly 23 million kg from 2012.
Canadians produced 612.4 million kg and imported 98.4 million kg.
For a full picture of the chicken industry and its production, visit http://www.chickenfarmers.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Chicken_Fax_20130906.pdf
