While the leaders of Canada’s chicken industry spent much of the past year struggling to redesign the production allocation system, the industry back on the farm was experiencing strong growth.
Consumers also were eating more chicken and Canadian exports were growing.
Production costs fell in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
But farmers did not always see higher returns, consumers did not always see lower prices and Canadians continued to spend much more for chicken than their American counterparts.
These are the 1997 chicken industry trends that emerge from year-end statistics compiled by Ottawa-based Chicken Farmers of Canada.
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According to CFC numbers, consumption in Canada during the 10 months ending last September was up 5.4 percent to 553.7 million kilograms.
To the middle of December, production had increased 4.5 percent to 718 million kg.
And exports were up 30.2 percent over the previous year to 31.36 million kg while imports increased just under 20 percent to 64.9 million kg.
However, processors also were ending the year with more chicken in storage. During November, inventory in storage surged more than 10 percent to 18.7 million kg.
And that helped dampen producer prices.
For the pricing period from Dec. 21 to Feb. 14, 1998, producer prices fell across the country, from one cent per kilo in B.C. to two cents in most other provinces.
Part of the struggle to devise a new production allocation system during the past year was based on producer complaints that processors were using their increased influence over production levels to stockpile supplies. The result was downward pressure on prices.
The new deal, taking effect in February, will put tighter limits on production increases. Industry leaders hope that will stabilize, if not increase, farmgate prices.
Meanwhile, in most western cities, consumers did not benefit from lower chicken prices during the past year, even though farm returns were falling.
CFC figures show that average retail prices for whole broiler chickens increased 8.7 percent in Vancouver during the past year, 1.8 percent in Edmonton, 5.9 percent in Regina and 5.2 percent in Winnipeg. In November, for example, consumers in Winnipeg paid an average $4.81 per kg for whole broiler chicken. In the U.S., the comparable price in Canadian dollars was $3.17.
