Chapter 3: Commercial Turkey Production

• 3.1 Turkey Production in Canada
   
  • 3.1.1 Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency (CTMA)
    
• 3.2 Production Trends
  
• 3.3 Farm Cash Receipts
  
• 3.4 Comparison of production levels in Canada and abroad

3.1 Turkey production in Canada

3.11 Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency (CTMA)

http://www.canadianturkey.ca

The Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency CTMA) is the national agency that represents turkey farmers and has the authority to regulate turkey production in Canada under a system of supply management. The CTMA was formed in 1974 under the Farm Products Marketing Agencies Act (1972). Under this system, production is managed using production quota to ensure that the production meets the demands of the Canadian market. CTMA is supervised by National Farm Products Council to ensure that the system operates optimally for producers and consumers.

CTMA’s board of directors includes producer representatives from each of the eight provincial commodity board members¹, two representatives from the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council (CPEPC), and one from the Further Poultry Processors Association of Canada (FPPAC).

Together these members determine the required level of production to meet the needs of the market. It is the responsibility of CTMA to then determine the national allocation and distribute the production to the provinces. Provincial boards in turn allocate production quota to registered producers. Each year, the provincial boards sign a "Promotion Agreement" under which they agree to pay the Agency damages for any overproduction and to accept a reduction in their quota allotment for the following year, equal to the amount of overproduction.

The provincial boards are responsible for negotiating live turkey prices with the processors, taking into account producer input costs, supply and demand, storage stocks, and the price of competing meats. Once a price has been agreed upon, this represents the minimum price a producer can be paid for their turkeys.

The CTMA is funded by levies, which are paid by the turkey producers and are assessed on each live kilogram of turkey marketed. Separate provincial and national levies are established and collected at the point of processing.

3.2 Production trends

There is commercial turkey production within every province except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland . Ontario and Quebec are responsible for the bulk of the Canadian production year after year. In 2003, Ontario alone produced 45% of turkey meat in Canada . By adding Quebec to the mix, this proportion climbs to 66%. Western provinces ( British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba ) and Atlantic provinces ( New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ) were on their part responsible of roughly 30% and 4% respectively in 2003.

As table 8 demonstrates, Canadian turkey production experienced a growth of 1.7% in 2003 compared to the previous year. Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitoba each witnessed a considerable production growth in 2003 with increases of 12.1%, 7.0% and 6.8% respectively. Over the past 20 years, turkey production has gone up 55% in Canada .

In 2003, there were 550 registered turkey growers, a decrease of 52 producers or 8.6% compared to 20 years earlier. This trend is consistent with what is happening in many agricultural sectors in Canada whereas the number of producers is declining while at the same time production is increasing. This results into larger turkey farms.

3.3 Farm Cash Receipts

The farm cash receipts for turkey producers increased from $160,705,000 to $260,657,000 over the last 20 years, an increase of $99,952,000 or 62%. During this same period, turkey production, grew by 55% from 95,512,000 kg to 148,124,000 kg. This translates into an average annual farm-gate price of $1.68/kg in 1983 and $1.76/kg in 2003, an increase of $0.08/kg or 4.8%.

There has been consistent trend of increasing cash receipts from each of the products that make up the poultry industry over the years; however the individual contribution by type of product has changed, with chicken production now accounting for the majority of the total poultry cash receipts, while eggs and turkey are losing some ground.

3.4 Comparison of production levels in Canada and abroad

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Canada ranked 7 th in 2003 worldwide in terms of turkey production, a loss of one spot compared to 5 five years earlier. As stated earlier, in terms of world turkey meat production, the United States are by far the top producer in the world with close to half of the world production. European countries are also known to be big turkey meat producer; in fact, France , Germany , Italy and the United Kingdom ranked 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th and 5 th in 2003.

1. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, provinces where there is no turkey production, are not members of the CTMA .

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