Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Jean-Michel Laurin, and I'm president and CEO of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council, CPEPC, or CCTOV in French. I'm joined today by our board chair, Mr. Joël Cormier, who is also senior vice-president, chicken division, at Exceldor co-operative.
Thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee to brief you on our industry's response to COVID-19 and the challenges we need to overcome. Before I turn it over to our chair, Mr. Cormier, I'd like to say a few words about our association.
CPEPC represents Canadian hatcheries, egg graders and processors, chicken and turkey processors, and further processors. Collectively, our membership represents 179 establishments, both small and large businesses, and covers every province.
Two things our members have in common are that they compete against one another in an open market, and they also purchase their primary inputs—chicken, turkey, eggs and hatching eggs—from supply-managed producers. Our members fall outside supply management. Overall they process over 90% of the poultry and egg products raised by Canadian farmers. The large majority of our members' production goes to feed Canadians through the retail food service and restaurant sectors.
I'd now like now to invite our chair, Mr. Cormier, to make introductory remarks on behalf of our association.