Survey results point to continued support for Canadian chicken farmers

Government support for the Canadian chicken sector is very popular heading into a federal election, according to a recent survey conducted by Abacus Data for Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC).

Most notably, the survey revealed that 82 per cent of Canadians support the supply management system.

The 5,000 respondents from across the country also shared their voting intentions in the survey, and government support for supply management and the Canadian chicken sector remained strong across the political spectrum.

“Voters have indicated that it is important to them that the government support Canada’s chicken farmers,” says CFC chair Benoît Fontaine. “Canadians have also indicated they don’t want to see any more access granted to the Canadian chicken market in future trade agreements, nor mislabelled broiler chicken crossing the border. Their intentions are clear.”

The survey revealed that Canadians have farmers’ backs when it comes to policy support as well:

• 82 per cent of Canadians want the government to crack down on mislabelled broiler chicken from the U.S. Chicken meat is being fraudulently declared as spent fowl in order to bypass import controls, and the chicken sector and voters alike are concerned. This not only takes away jobs and income from Canada’s chicken farmers and processors, but also puts Canadian consumers at risk due to broken food chain traceability.
• 79 per cent want the government to support chicken farm operations impacted by the pandemic.
• 72 per cent agree that the government should not concede any further access to the Canadian chicken market in future trade agreements and the same amount believe that support programs or mitigation measures should be available to farmers when access is granted.

The survey also outlined that party support for the chicken sector will bolster the vote strength, attract opposition voters and bring in swing voters.

Abacus Data conducted a survey with 5,000 Canadian adults between the dates of March 11 to 28, 2021. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 1.35, 19 times out of 20. The data were weighted according to census proportions.