Agriculture committee  What I have to say follows along the same lines. As I said in my presentation, poultry further processors are in the same situation we are. Earlier we talked about raw and processed products. Products from Thailand, for example, are unique in that they are cooked products. Their price could be so low that not only the producers but the whole industry in Canada could suffer.

Agriculture committee  Yes, for the most part. But you mustn't forget that Brazil and Thailand are now part of the market. The US may even be overtaken, on the Canadian market, by these two exporting countries. If we changed the rule to go from 87% to 20% chicken content we think the United States would probably be exempted.

Agriculture committee  Obviously, producers are quite able to produce that amount of chicken. This situation did not just happen this year: industry demand has been strong for several years now. The 13% rule which has been referred to is vague enough to allow people to bypass the import list. When the content of a product is below 87%, say 86.5%, for instance—a good example would be chicken tournedos, but also kebabs—it can be imported outside of tariffs.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Martin Dufresne, and I am the President of Éleveurs de volailles du Québec. I live in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, northeast of Montreal, where I produce poultry and eggs on a family farm, which has existed for generations. Like all Canadian poultry farms, this operation owes its existence and prosperity to supply management.