Not enough chicks means not enough chicken meat, increased imports
Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — A shortage of chicks has triggered a shortage of Canadian chicken meat.
As a result, Canadians have been eating more imported American chicken to satiate their appetite for breasts, thighs and wings. Ironically, the whole situation stems from Canada’s traditional reliance on imported American hatching eggs — source of about 20 % of the chicks that grow into broiler birds on a 6- to 7-week cycle at Canadian farms. The Americans were hard hit by avian flu, leaving Canadian hatcheries with a big dent in the number of available chicks that would otherwise be hatched out of American eggs for their Canadian farm customers.
The resulting shortage of Canadian chicken meat has driven up imports to fill the gap. Imports of chicken meat jumped almost 55 % through the first half of 2025 over the same period in 2024, according to the Canadian Association of Regulated Importers organization.
“Yes, there have been some challenges in producing chicken, primarily due to availability of chicks,” Chicken Farmers of Ontario communications director Kathryn Goodish acknowledged. “Earlier in the year, chicken farmers experienced a shortage of chicks that was related to U.S. suppliers not providing anticipated supply for various reasons including Avian influenza,” she said.
Goodish noted that trade agreements compel Canada to allow about 20 % of the hatching egg and chick supply to be filled by American imports. However, “when suppliers do not provide those hatching eggs and chicks, it creates a challenge to produce domestic needs,” she said.
Both chicken meat and hatching eggs are produced under supply management in Canada. Fully supplying the Canadian market with domestic produce is supposed to be the lynchpin mandate of supply-managed commodities like eggs, poultry and dairy. It’s part of the societal bargain: Farmers in those sectors control a closed market and get stable revenues, while consumers know they are getting the needed supply and are eating high-quality Canadian food raised by their fellow Canadians. To fall short of that mark draws eyebrow-raising scrutiny from the critics of supply management.
In a social media post highlighting 67 million kilograms of chicken meat imported between New Year’s Day and June 14, 2025, Dalhousie University Food Professor Dr. Sylvain Charlebois blamed the Canadian chicken “supply crunch” on a domestic supply management system that “lacks flexibility.”
“When underproduction happens, it can’t be corrected overnight — so processors turn to imports, as shown in the latest (importers’) report,” Charlebois wrote.
Some farmers believe that Canada should be able to operate without U.S. hatching eggs. “There shouldn’t be any reason why we can’t fill our market,” Guelph-area chicken producer Scott Murison opined.
Murison said his production has been down about 5 % in recent years because of a shortage of hatching eggs to renew his supply of birds every 46 days.
He also echoed the concern about the supply management system becoming accustomed to American suppliers as a result of trade agreements. The system comes to rely on that supply, “and then all of a sudden, it’s gone … and they (the Americans) just don’t care,” he observed. “There’s no penalty for them not to supply us.”
Adding to the pressures, Canada’s overall chicken consumption has been rising. Although the amount of chicken meat eaten annually per person has remained steady at about 38 kg since 2022, Canada’s population has surged by over 3 million people since then, according to StatCan figures. A recent report by the USDA’s foreign agricultural service points out that Canadian chicken production “has yet to catch up” to the increased demand.
The trend was already evident last year. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada data shows that Canada imported 9.1 % more chicken meat in 2024 over 2023 and the highest amount on record since 2016, according to the Chicken Farmers of Canada’s 2024 annual report.
Update: “As hatching egg producers, we’ve felt these challenges firsthand, and we’ve taken action,” Canadian Hatching Egg Producers chair Brian Bilkes said in an Aug. 8 email to Farmers Forum. “Just last month, our producers approved a historic five-year agreement that gives us greater flexibility to respond to market realities, manage import pressures, and increase domestic hatching egg production. Thanks to supply management, we’re able to produce more of our own food right here at home for Canadians.”
