Chicken prices in Canada are about to get worse. Sylvain Charlebois visited a processing plant today and had lunch with the CEO. They ate chicken. Two hundred and fifty chickens are harvested per minute at this facility.

Canada’s supply management system missed its production quota twelve times out of the last fourteen cycles. Whole chicken is up thirty percent. A meat broker called Sylvain Charlebois this week suspecting smugglers are crossing the border with undeclared chicken, avoiding the tariff that is supposed to protect the entire system.

The tariff is two hundred and forty-nine percent. Chicken smuggling carries no jail time. Someone is acting on both of those facts right now.

Topics: chicken prices Canada, chicken smuggling, supply management, poultry shortage, food professor

GUEST: Dr. Sylvain Charlebois | @foodprofessor

Originally aired on2026-05-28