Who’s Who 2020 – Quebec – David Phaneuf

Quebec hatching egg producer David Phaneuf has always been amazed by how little people know about the origins
of the foods they eat. So, he’s made it a personal goal from the start of his professional career to try and change that.

“Most people don’t have any understanding of the broiler industry,” says Phaneuf, a 37-year-old father of three who owns and operates a diversified farming business called Ferme Fatran.

“So, I take every chance I get to talk about our production and to explain how the business works.”

Phaneuf’s advocacy efforts began soon after he graduated with an agronomy degree from Laval University in Quebec City in 2006. He returned home to work alongside his parents Gaétan and Lise on the family farm in Saint-Liboire, a rural municipality an hour’s drive east of Montreal.

The Phaneufs raise 19,000 Ross 308 broiler birds in two flocks in three barns on their property. They also raise 80,000 broilers and 12,000 turkeys annually in four small barns on a nearby farm they bought in 1995.

They grow commercial crops as well – mostly corn for feed mills, soybean for human consumption and barley for breweries – on more than 1,000 acres.

Egg hatching, however, is the Phaneuf’s principal commercial activity, accounting for roughly half of farm revenues and most of the work done by seven employees, including Phaneuf and his parents.

“My kids are still too young to help out,” notes Phaneuf, whose wife Véronique Marcil teaches at a local public school. “But they are already keen to get involved. A farm is a great place to live and learn.”

Career-long advocate
Soon after graduating from Laval, Phaneuf signed up for the ambassador program with Quebec’s massive farmers’ union, the Union des producteurs agricole (UPA).

The program notably includes school visits by producers to talk about farming and farming-related issues. “I did a lot of that,” the poultry producer says. “It’s a great opportunity to teach young people about what it is we do.”

The Phaneufs were also early adherents to the UPA’s ‘Portes ouvertes’ (or open door) program. Begun in 2002, the annual event today involves more than 100 producers who open their farms to public visits on a Sunday in early September.

In addition to doing public advocacy work, Phaneuf has also been an active member of Quebec’s hatching egg producers’ board since 2008. There are 41 hatching egg producers in Quebec who supply the province’s five hatcheries. Like its counterparts in other Canadian provinces, the UPA-affiliated Syndicat des producteurs d’œufs d’incubation du Québec manages the rules and regulations needed to ensure a safe and steady supply of hatching eggs for the broiler industry in la belle province.

“I really enjoy working with my fellow producers and being involved in the many important issues we deal with,” says Phaneuf, who is one of the seven members of the Quebec board and one of its two vice chairs.

Pandemic fallout
One current issue, he notes, is the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis, which has led to a steep decline in restaurant sales and created a broiler and chick surplus in the food chain.

That has led to a need to renegotiate prices with Quebec’s hatcheries, which pay hatching egg producers for the chicks they sell, not for the number of eggs they receive.

According to Phaneuf, an average of 82 chicks hatch from every 100 fertilized eggs Quebec producers send to hatcheries. That works out to roughly 58 cents per fertilized egg in Quebec.

“That’s close to the Ontario price, which is normally a good price that allows us to cover our production costs, to pay our bills and lead a decent life,” Phaneuf says. “But the pandemic has created a situation that we need to straighten out.”

Though he normally travels two or three times a month to UPA headquarters in the off-island Montreal suburb of Longueuil to attend hatching egg board meetings, Phaneuf says those meetings are now being done virtually due to the pandemic.

National issues
In addition to his UPA work, Phaneuf is also a regular participant at open meetings of the Canadian Egg Hatching Producers (CHEP).

As the newest member of Canada’s supply management system, CHEP uses quota, import and price controls to help ensure industry stability and to provide a steady supply of hatching eggs from the nearly 250 Canadian broiler hatching egg farmers in six provinces.

Those farmers produce more than 700 million broiler hatching eggs annually, generating nearly $300 million in revenues and supporting 4,200 jobs directly and indirectly.

According to Phaneuf, participating in open meetings at the national level is a great way to both learn and stay abreast of national and international issues that can impact the egg and poultry industry as a whole and his fellow producers in particular.

“It lets you know who the players are and to better understand the complexities of the issues that are involved,” he says. “That makes it a lot easier for me to make decisions not only at the board level but in my own business as well.”

Phaneuf was notably involved in the federal working group that was struck in December 2018 to look at the potential impacts that several recent and pending free trade deals – including the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Canada-Mercosur – could have on Canada’s poultry and egg sector.

The group spent four months studying the potential impacts of those trades and made several still-unannounced recommendations to the federal government on how to mitigate them.

“Hatching egg producers get hit from both sides by free trade deals because we lose out on sales for the table egg and broiler markets,” Phaneuf notes.

He says 20 per cent of broilers and seven per cent of poultry meat production in Quebec currently come from eggs that were fertilized and imported into Canada from the U.S. and South American countries like Brazil that are now part of the Mercosur block now in free trade talks with Canada.

“We’re already losing nearly 30 per cent of our market to these imports,” Phaneuf says. “I’m afraid we’ll lose a lot more feathers from the deal with Mercosur if we’re not careful.”

Though he doesn’t hold a position with CHEP – at least not yet – Phaneuf’s participation at the federal level haven’t gone unnoticed. “David is almost always present at CHEP’s open meetings to follow the discussion and shows good engagement,” says CHEP executive director Drew Black. “He is a quick learner and is well informed on industry issues.”

For the time being, however, Phaneuf says he’s content to continue following the federal egg and poultry scene as an interested observer.

“I’m glad to participate and to learn but I’m happy keeping my involvement to the provincial level, which is already pretty demanding in terms of time and commitment,” he says. “My main focus right now is my family and my farm.”