It costs more but, it is still very popular
Eggs are a consumer good widely consumed by the Canadian population. However, like many products at the grocery store, the price has increased. As of last August, the price of a dozen cost $4.71 according to Statistics Canada. An increase of 5 to 6% has been observed over the past year, according to Sylvain Charlebois, director of the agri-food analytical sciences laboratory at Dalhousie University.
“This is in addition to another more substantial increase the year before of more than 10%.”
Egg consumption is increasing despite inflation, says Mr. Charlebois. For him, it is a product “which transports well, which stores well” while adding that it is a versatile product and that you can do all kinds of things with it. Eventually, the professor feels that the egg’s popularity will continue.
Supply management and labor
Another issue facing poultry producers is supply management. This system aims to coordinate the needs of a certain product, here eggs, across the country. Recently, the issue returned to the federal political scene with the Bloc Québécois, which asked Justin Trudeau’s government to protect this system during trade negotiations by having one of its bills adopted before October 29.
According to egg producer Nicholas Tremblay of the company “Les Poules à Meggy” located in Saguenay, the “big challenges are to defend our system to ensure that it will still be there for future generations. “.
Generally, it is a production that is relatively stable.” Mr. Tremblay specifies that these challenges affect all entrepreneurs. He adds that labor is also an issue to manage. “We are obviously not capable of doing this alone” concludes the Saguenéen.
Chickens at home
As for individuals, more and more people have chickens at home, in their yard, particularly for ecological reasons. “It reduces compost and waste quite a bit,” says Jean-François Cossette, owner of a chicken coop. The man specifies that the ecological concept of the thing is what mainly encouraged him to try the experiment.
He also adds that there is better traceability of the product: “To have proximity to, we can say, nature, to know where our food comes from. Still, with farmed chickens, we don’t really know what they can eat, but here you have full control.”
“Eggs are better!” according to Mr. Cossette. As for maintenance, the man says that it is not that demanding to have a henhouse as well as chickens at home. According to him, as long as the chickens are fed and have a large plot of land, it’s perfect. He specifies that the maintenance tasks are mainly during the winter since the chickens stay indoors most of the time. A good cleaning is then necessary when spring arrives.
